


Ghosts

by patientbeewife



Category: Call the Midwife
Genre: F/F, Fighting, Gay, Gore, lavender - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-04
Updated: 2017-02-05
Packaged: 2018-06-06 11:00:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 30
Words: 21,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6751312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/patientbeewife/pseuds/patientbeewife
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Delia + Patsy = Ghosts?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Delia woke to the sound of her alarm blaring in her ear. It was 1AM and she had had approximately 4 hours sleep. She realised she had slept in her nurses uniform, but it was too late to do anything about that now, as her night shift was starting with the St Johns ambulance. She quickly donned her navy blue uniform and left the other creased on the floor. Delia wished that the gravity would do something to flatten the shoulders of the lavender purple outfit, because she found the dress very cumbersome, and not very flattering.

  
She ran down the hall, trying to be as quiet as possible, and grabbed her keys and her coat from the long rail that had all of the other nurse’s coats and bags on their own personalised hook.  
Wheeling her bike out of the hedge she crashed it into the night before; she pulled a few loose branches out of its spokes, ran alongside it for a while, and then hopped on. The welsh woman swerved out of the way of a cat and almost hit an oncoming truck and continued on her way, unsteadily, to the hospital and the Ambulance depot.

  
‘What time do you call this then?’

a threatening voice echoed from inside one of the static ambulances.  
Delia knowingly smiled through the dark and reached to switch on the large overhead light, Delia checked her watch and feigned a grimace

‘…fashionably late?’

The figure moved to show itself out of the ambulance window and Tony Amos greeted Delia with a wide grin. Delia laughed and proceeded to hop into the passenger’s seat of the car.

‘We’re lucky tonight, it’s been really quiet’

Tony said, tuning in the radio. Delia reached in her bag and retrieved two apples, she handed Tony one and wiped hers on her uniform before eating it. A few hours passed and they took it in turns, one listening to the radio and the other dozing off for a few minutes. At 3AM, Tony nudged Delia, she sleepily opened one eye and muttered something about a call out.

‘no..no it’s not a call out. I was just thinking…do you think there are more people like us?’

Tony’s searching voice was barely even a whisper. Delia didn’t move from her sleeping position and mumbled ‘ambulance drivers?’ tony groaned and felt Delia laugh somewhat.

‘I’m being serious Delia’, she sensed the anguish in Tony’s voice and turned around to face him.  
‘I have no doubt, tony, that we will find out place in this world. And we will be loved, accepted and respected. Maybe not by everybody just now, but times are changing , and we have to believe that there is someone out there for both of us’

Delia seemed satisfied that her answer was reassuring enough even if she was slightly unsure if even she believed herself. They hugged it out and tony brushed a tear from his cheek. The radio started to fuzz, and Delia tuned it into the operator.  
‘Dockside fire, many casualties, all units set off immediately’ the operator’s crackly voice instructed.  
‘Looks like it’s time to move’, Tony turned the key in the ignition and set the siren off. They thought it would be a quiet night shift...


	2. Fire

The scene was chaotic, people were screaming and shouting for help, Delia’s training kicked in and she began to assess the area for casualties and help out in any way she could. Tony loaded the ambulance with 2 men who had been badly burnt and Delia ran to the back of the ambulance and shut the door behind her. She treated their wounds as best as she could with the limited resources that were in the dimly lit space. The van skidded to a stop and Tony ran to open the doors and helped to get the stretchers out.  
They hurtled down the blindingly white corridors with the patients, desperately trying to find the surgical ward, as the victims were not responding now and needed major surgery if they had a chance of walking out alive.

‘Left here!’

Tony instructed, and they both pushed the stretchers to the feet of a tall red-headed nurse.  
She glanced down at the stretchers, and again to her clipboard

‘Name?’

she asked, not looking up from the board. Delia was confused at the formal question when she thought it was blatantly obvious why they were there.

  
‘St Johns Ambulance – Del-‘

  
‘Yes, I can see that. I meant the patients.’

The nurse snapped as she cut Delia off mid-sentence.

  
Delia narrowed her eyes and shifted as she was about to give the nurse a piece of her mind, when Tony stepped in, forming a physical barrier between the two.

  
‘Not sure if anyone has let the hospital know, but there was a huge fire at the dock. We do not know anything more. Apart from these patients are in a critical condition, and if they don’t get help this instant, they will die.’ Tony’s eyes were desperate, searching, and slightly bloodshot from lack of sleep.

  
The woman looked down at the paper, crossed off two things, and looked back at them casually.

‘Take them that way, she pointed, and ask for Doctor Turner. Tell him it’s an emergency. And hurry!’ She moved out of their way, and gave Delia a quizzical look. Delia was furious at the taller woman’s lack of urgency in their blatant emergency, but she had no time to dwell on it because she had to brief the doctor on the information she had gathered on the patient’s condition.  
An hour later, Tony left to start his job at the Garage, Delia thanked him and said they made a good team. Delia waited outside of the surgery, to find out the status of the man she saved from the fire. The Doctor stepped out of the room. Delia stood up and asked

‘How is he?’

‘Situation stable Miss Busby, Thanks to you. I dare-say if you were any later we would have had a much different outcome. Well done’

  
She exhaled, with relief, which evolved into a yawn. She covered her mouth.  
Dr. Turner smiled.

‘You look tired Nurse Busby. We have rooms for staff to sleep in while they are on night shifts, just down the corridor. I suggest you get some well-deserved rest.’

  
Delia tried to protest, but instead she nodded, and proceeded to follow the sign to the staff rooms. She quietly opened a creaky door, and found one of the empty bunks. Sleep welcomed her as soon as she turned off the small bedside light, and drew the lower bunk-bed curtain.


	3. Sun

The sunlight beamed through the thin curtain, and Delia groaned, realising that she had once again slept in another uniform. It was 3PM.

  
‘…shit!’

She cursed and sat up quickly, hitting her head on the bunk-bed

‘mmph!’

She drew back the curtain and barely remembered what day it was or why she was there. She stumbled out onto the corridor which was now incredibly busy, and people were bustling past her, probably wondering what she was doing there, and looking like a zombie. She spotted a staff room and went to find something to eat, and more importantly, she needed her ‘morning’ tea.  
The staff room was a large L shaped room, which had a large window looking out onto the London skyline. She went to the kitchen area and made Tea. She opened a few doors she thought could have been the fridge, and finally opened the right door

‘bingo’

she whispered, so as not to be heard by the few nurses and doctors who were all sitting, reading or smoking on their short break. On closer inspection, she saw there was a note on the milk  ‘Property of Nurse mount’ Delia looked around to see if there were alternatives to stealing the milk, but she saw no choice, and used the carton anyway. She quickly returned the now much lighter carton, and took an apple out of the fruit bowl. She grabbed her tea and went to find a seat.

Approaching the window, she saw a free seat which gave a great view of the city, as well as the ambulance courtyard.

‘Mind if I sit here?’

she asked a nurse who seemed to be cradling a cup of something and reading a newspaper.

‘no- Go ahead...’

the reply was terse, it sounded like privilege, money… Delia whispered a thanks, and glanced to the side. She recognised her flame red hair anywhere. It was the nurse from last night. She slowly turned back to glance straight ahead and her body tensed slightly. As if she had ran into a lion’s den.  
Anger then prickled her neck, as she remembered the critical condition of her patients and the redheads seeming lack of interest – of anything. So she decided to eat her apple as loud as possible to annoy the woman.  
Her interrupting ways were definitely working, as every now and again Delia felt the woman glance up from her page, as if to say ‘…Yes?’ ‘What?’

Delia smirked and continued. A few minutes later, the woman let out a loud sigh. She checked her watch and muttered an ‘excuse me’ and stormed off. Delia was triumphant.

A few weeks passed and Delia balanced her nursing with her ambulance job. She enjoyed confiding in Tony, and she knew he did too. He often spoke of his meetings with various men in the poplar area, and Delia warned him

‘Tony, are you quite sure you can trust these people that they are who they say they are? I've heard things, with the police…things can get really bad’

Tony always laughed Delia’s concern off, but she knew he was as worried as she was, if not more. ‘I can’t live a lie, Delia. You know that more than anyone’ Delia resigned her argument, as it wasn't really an argument, just a wish for them both to be safe in their community.

‘I’ll see you on Thursday, yeah?’ he left and Delia untied her bike and set off into the night.


	4. Fire (again)

Thursday came around and Delia made her way to the ambulance garage to start her night-shift. Some of the girls from work were going to the Cinnamon Café to see the live music and accompanied her for a while until their routes diverted. She promised them she would go out with them one night next week. Jenny told her she was too much of a workaholic. Delia just laughed and waved a goodbye quickly, so she reduced the amount of time she only had one hand on the handlebars. She approached the shed, and thought it was slightly unusual that the lights were off.

She assumed it was another one of Tony’s plans to scare her

‘You’re not fooling me this time’

she cockily moved her head to the side and laughed, which seemed to leave a hollow echo in the crisp air. She turned the lights on and called for Tony. There was no reply. Grabbing a chair, and climbing up on it, Delia reached above the fuse box to find the spare.

  
Delia checked her watch and realised it had been more than an hour since she had arrived. And resigned herself to the fact that Tony was not coming. Her mind started to wander and she started to worry about Tony. Especially since she remembered the conversation they left on last time. Her attention was drawn back to the darkness as the radio operator called in  
‘House fire. 31 Skipton Street. All units dispatch’ (aren't there a lot of fires in poplar??..)

  
Delia shifted over into the driver’s seat and headed to her destination. Although she had only been living in London for 4 years, she knew the area really well. Her mother often joked she would make a good taxi driver, as she seemed to be on autopilot navigating around the streets.  
The smoke could be seen for miles and she approached the tall building with caution. A local woman shouted

  
‘Over here nurse! We got a baby stuck on the first floor!!’

  
Children were all crying in the street and people were pointing at the open window, where the vague cry of a baby could be heard. She looked around frantically, and tried to open the front door, which was scalding to the touch. Her hand drew back and she looked at it, now a light colour of red and it was bleeding

‘oh cripes…’ she cradled her hand  
‘think Busby think…’

  
Delia saw there was a drainpipe leading up to the window and her instincts kicked in. She was greeted with confounded looks by the audience as she tested the lead drain with a few tugs to see if it would hold her weight, and began to climb.  
Growing up in the welsh countryside meant she was an expert at climbing in her younger days, so much so the people nicknamed her ‘monkey’, but now this was different. Her hand stung with every movement and she slowly ascended. The baby’s cries were getting louder as she peered into the open window, and managed to clamber over the window. The people below let out a relieved sigh and Delia looked around the smoky room to try and find the baby. Crawling now, she found it increasingly difficult to breathe. Her hands reached something and she felt the bars of the baby’s cot. She scooped the baby up and rushed to the window.

  
The door that was shut to the nursery then exploded open with great force and a fireball hurtled towards the nurse. She jumped and flipped in the air and landed with a thud. She looked out of the window and saw the people of poplar had stretched out an old WW2 parachute, and were gesturing for her to climb back down. She could not. The drainpipe had melted away. The only option was to throw the baby out of the window and hope the people would catch it. She shut her eyes and threw the baby down and it landed safely in the parachute and was returned to its inconsolable father. He cried out a thank you to nurse Busby. There must have been 500 people watching her in this moment. The local woman shouted for her to jump! And Delia thought she better hurry, as the floor had started to cave in. she swung one leg out of the frame and took one last look behind her. She then saw the gas canister that was in the corner behind the door. Before she had time to react, a white flame engulfed the room, and Delia with it. The last thing she saw was the full moon, which was unusually bright. Delia fell to the ground. Her limp body lay on the cobbles.


	5. cool moon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> officially the worst piece of literature ive ever read

Delia was a ghost. Her body, and her physical being, were detached and she felt as though she was floating. A white light flooded over her entire body and she smiled, she wasn’t afraid, as she knew the presence was that of an angel. The figure beckoned for her to approach into the blinding white of the light, and Delia tried as hard as she could, but she felt rooted to the spot. She could not move, and the presence was already getting smaller and smaller, and the light was shrinking.

The figures faded from view and Delia fell to her hands to try and crawl, to move anywhere, but when she looked at her hands, they were scalded. She remembered then about the fire and what happened. Her vision now was totally black, and the light had vanished. She began to fall again, and saw the moon.

  
Delia jolted awake and her whole body felt as though it had been through a blender. She groaned and retreated back to where she was lying.  
Delia moved her hands and feet and made sure she had control of all of her limbs, but she realised she had a cast on her shoulder and ankle. She was rather perturbed that this would put her out of work for a good 8 weeks. Her mother would not be happy she thought. She spotted the glass of the water on the bedside table and sat up to reach it.

  
The pain that ran up her left shoulder as she moved was so intense, she saw stars. Blinking away a tear, she decided to count the number of flowers there were on the outdated wallpaper pattern. Delia knew it wouldn’t be long until someone came to check on her, seeing as though she was a new arrival, and it looked like she had come fresh out or surgery.

Just then Doctor Turner entered the room backwards, talking to another person. She recognised the Doctors voice, but her eyes had not adjusted to the light in the room.

  
‘Nurse Mount, this is a new patient on your ward, a fellow nurse, Delia Busby. She suffered multiple fractures and breaks from falling from a building, saving a baby from a fire’

they stepped closer and Doctor Turner was beaming at her

‘Excellent work, I must say, Nurse Busby. You’re a hero’

  
Delia tried to smile and he quickly checked his watch. He lightly touched Delia’s hand and then made a move to the door

‘Must dash! Nurse Crane started her meeting 5 minutes ago’

Nurse mount knowingly groaned and then became serious.  
‘I trust you to do the initial post op assessment nurse mount’  
‘Of course’ she replied curtly. Delia’s eyes adjusted and she realised who this ‘Nurse mount’ was.  
She widened her eyes and knew her stay at the hospital would not be very 'fun'.  
Patsy retrieved the clipboard from the bottom of Delia’s bed.

 Patsy felt some vibes of hostility from the woman, and wondered, frankly, what was Delia Busby’s problem with her? She decided to brush it off, and be professional.

 

 

‘So any pain anywhere?’

  
‘Everywhere’

Delia quipped.

  
‘Could you be more specific Miss Busby?’

  
‘Actually, it’s Nurse Busby and yes, my hand, my leg, my other leg, my left ankle, and my shoulders. And my head’

Patsy gave a sympathetic smile and noted everything down Delia was saying.  
‘well, as you probably know nurse Busby, your condition requires a lot of bedrest and being still so the bones can mend, I would say you’ll be out of here in 7 to 8 weeks’

 

Nurse Mount pretended not to notice.  
‘Ok, well, If you need anything, just ring this bell and one of the nurses will be along to help you out in any way’

Patsy looked somewhat sad, and returned the clipboard to the foot of the bed.  
Patsy headed to the door, and Delia remembered about the water.  
She decided to try out the bell and patsy turned on her heel. Delia smiled and looked down.

  
‘I’m sorry, it’s just, I can’t reach the water…’

  
‘Of course’

Patsy covered the distance across the room in a few strides and retrieved the glass. She motioned to give the glass to Delia, but  
Held up her bandaged hands and smiled. Patsy returned the smile and sat next to her on the bed and held the glass to her mouth.

  
Delia felt bad for being slightly obtrusive at answering patsy’s routine questions, after all she was just doing her job. She gratefully accepted the water and drank steadily, but deeply, realising how parched she had been. She strange, now, regarding the proximity of nurse mount to her. She could feel the taller woman’s gaze on her.

  
‘It was amazing what you did…’

Patsy’s usual demeanour was much reduced and she was speaking softer now. Delia tried to reply and patsy delayed slightly in tilting the glass back. Delia gulped the large amount of water that almost fell on her and patsy let out a stifled laugh

‘sorry!’

she said and reached to get Delia a paper towel for her face. Delia wiped her mouth

‘It was nothing really. I just did what anyone else would have done.’

  
Patsy’s eyes widened ‘well I think it’s extraordinary.’

She squeezed Delia’s shoulder.  
‘ow ow ow!’

Delia yowled

  
‘Oh god…I’m so sorry’

  
Delia winced ‘It’s ok…It just hurts…q-u-I-t-e a bit….’

  
Patsy moved back to the foot of her bed and was horrified at herself.

‘Delia- I don’t know what to say – I’m sorry’

Delia liked the way patsy said her name so casually. Like they had known each other for years.  
Delia’s pain resided and she let out a sly smile

‘I’ll forgive you if you smuggle me in some cake’

  
‘But that’s …against-‘

  
‘I know it’s against hospital rules, silly that is the whole definition of the word

‘smuggle’…’

  
Patsy fought an inner war with herself for a few seconds, and thought about how her most recent promotion was going well, but she still felt inferior to the other nurses and matrons because of their superior years at the hospital and their experience, and they all judged her slightly because she had been fast tracked to head of ward at 25. She remembered about Delia’s arm then.  
‘Leave it with me’ she gave Delia a serious look and left the room.


	6. raspberry beret

A day passed and Delia drifted out of consciousness. She noticed strange things had been going on. There was a lot of screaming which seemed to be coming from other rooms and she saw the light from underneath the curtains shift as various medical staff ran around on high alert.  
Through a thin partition in the blinds, she saw the flash of a patient, whose eyes seemed to be red, and bloodshot. She saw a senior nurse sedate her and instructed her team of 5 nurses and doctors to restrain her, and put her back in the isolation unit. Delia physically jumped as the door opened and patsy walked in rather flustered, holding a well disguised box.  
Delia was still distracted at the scene she had witnessed outside ‘what was going on out there?’ she finally turned to patsy and spied the box.  
Patsy adjusted her nurses hat thing (what would you call it? A beret??)  
‘I’m not sure…it’s actually been notified to the department of environmental health…’ Patsy looked worried ‘but of course, that information is supposed to be classified’  
Delia rolled her eyes ‘I do work here too Nurse Mount’  
Patsy shook her head and nodded by way of an apology ‘yes…yes of course. Don’t tell anyone, but I’m worried about it. I think it could be some sort of…Tropical disease? Maybe?’ Patsy was consumed in thought. She continued ‘we’ve had 5 cases in the last day…’ she trailed off.  
Delia thought for a moment and changed the subject ‘What’s in the box, Nurse?’ Delia smiled fully. Patsy was still staring, in her own world of thought.  
‘Nurse???’ Delia tapped patsy’s arm.  
‘Oh! Yes….sorry….’ she unwrapped the box and revealed the 3 foot cake. The welsh woman looked with awe.  
‘I made it myself.’ Patsy said proudly.  
‘What sort is it?’ Delia was looking closer at it and saw ingredients she did not recognise.  
‘Just an old recipe. My grandmother taught me it, but I forgot most of the steps, so had to wing it.’  
Delia narrowed her eyes as she swore she saw an apple core fossilised in the side of the monstrous creation. Patsy tried to lever the cake out of the hat box that she had disguised it in, and decided to just flip it over and hit the top of the box, until it fell on the table. Lifting the box back, the cake sat there limply for a moment. Just then, the top of the cake slid to the side, because the icing had not set in the middle. Patsy gave a serious look and bit her lip.  
‘I wonder if I didn’t follow the right instructions…’  
‘I’m sure it will be lovely……’ Delia lied  
They sat in silence with the plates of cake, wishing that the other would be the ‘poison taster’, as it were.  
‘Right. That’s it.’ Delia stated. And bit into the slab of cake.  
‘Well it’s certainly interesting…’ she said. Patsy also sampled the cake she made and immediately looked for somewhere to spit it out. She gave up and ate the bite that she had, and started to cough ‘Delia that was disgusting!!!! Don’t eat another bite of that. I must have mixed up the recipes….’ ‘I need a cigarette’ she went to delia's window and opened it slightly more ‘you don’t mind do you?’ Patsy looked fed up. Delia was laughing ‘No of course not’  
‘I was starting to worry that the fire had ruined my taste buds too’  
Patsy laughed as she exhaled the smoke.  
‘I’m so sorry.’ she said gravely. Hanging her head. ‘I wanted to find a way to apologise for the other day, your shoulder, and back in the emergency ward’  
Delia raised her eyebrows so they disappeared underneath her fringe. ‘I didn’t think you would remember that’  
‘I was having a wretched day, and, seeing those people within an inch of their life…just pushed me over the edge’ Patsy’s eyes became glassy and delia's face softened.  
‘All is forgiven. As long as you don’t bring me any more cake!’ they both laughed now, and stared at each other.  
Just then, a huge object slammed into the window and the two women turned around, terrified. A man let out a huge scream and there was commotion on the ward again. Patsy stubbed out her cigarette and made a hasty exit ‘I’d better see what was going on’ She looked apprehensive and concerned.  
‘Get some rest’ she smiled and shut the door behind her.


	7. what is going on here?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> rated k for language

Delia was improving rapidly. She had the casts off her ankle and the bandages from her hands. Her shoulder still stung when she sat up or moved quickly. But she could manage to stand and walk around her room. Patsy still checked her status every day. Delia knew that at the stage she was at now, it would have been more routine for a lower level nurse to take over the easier task, but she was glad the older nurse was still involved in her road to recovery.

  
Delia was partially aware of the epidemic that the hospital was facing. The number of patients who were becoming unresponsive was growing rapidly, and there was a rumour that a cleaner who worked the nightshift had disappeared with no trace. Patsy was worried about it too. Delia saw the fear in her eyes when she mentioned it.

Patsy waltzed in and shut the door. She came brandishing a bunch of daffodils. She placed them in the vase next to the window.

‘Welsh flowers for a welsh flower' Delia blushed and hobbled over to them to go check them out.

‘You’re improving’ patsy commented.

‘I’ll be able to do the foxtrot in no time at all! ’ Just then Delia's knee gave out and patsy caught her

’maybe not just this instant Delia’  
Delia feigned annoyance.  
Patsy loved this time out of her hectic day where she could talk to Delia. She remembered what was in her bag, and pulled out a deck of cards.  
Delia snickered ‘for a moment there I was worried, thought it was going to be another cake’  
Patsy lit a cigarette and rolled her eyes. Delia shuffled the pack and dealt the cards.  
‘Gin rummy?’ Delia suggested  
‘Delia we play that every time’ patsy sighed  
‘And you complain every time, because I win. Every. Time.’ She cocked her head and once more patsy’s eyes rolled into the back of her head.  
‘Fine’.  
30 mins into the 5th game, Delia had 6 cigarettes in her corner, and 5 shillings. Patsy’s winnings consisted of one apple.  
‘You know what they say, pats. An apple a day…’  
Delia grinned and patsy groaned.  
Their conversation varied, going from Delia*s ambulance work to her family, Delia asked about patsy’s family, and patsy quickly changed the subject to her work. She discussed the most recent incident with the cleaner and the patients seeming lack of response to the outside world.  
‘It’s not even like when I worked on the psych ward, pats. I’ve seen them from outside the window. This is different, violent, inhuman…’  
Patsy turned serious. ‘Nobody knows Delia. We should leave it to the doctors.’  
‘I was just- ‘  
‘Well don’t. This is a serious issue and we don’t need yet more under qualified people hazarding guesses at what they know nothing about’  
Delia felt as if she had been slapped in the face, and her face looked as confused.  
‘I’d better go. You can keep the cards for now’  
Patsy took her winnings and left.


	8. tiny chapter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I HAVE to say thank you to some EXCELLENT comments I received.  
> Emma - thanks  
> Rachel - I havent killed her. Yet  
> sfp - amazing  
> Pupcake - im going as fast as i can thank you for the encouragement  
> Amyxtrussler - im amazed someone thought this much about a fic but thank you  
> patsandeels - i have a hard time in believing that but thanks i will continue nonetheless 
> 
> without further ado

A few days passed and Delia had stopped recovering quite as fast as she had been. Patsy hadn't been checking on her as she normally did, it was one of the student nurses. Delia tried to make conversation with them, but they were very aloof as they tried not to delay in moving onto their next task, all under the scrutiny of the ever alert nurse crane.  
Delia became incredibly bored in the monotony of her day, she knew her schedule, and each day was the same, albeit with some variation in the hospital food. Yet still it managed to be mostly grey in colour.

  
She wrote a letter to her mother and father who could not afford to make the train fare and visit her in London. She assured them it wasn’t necessary and they shouldn't worry about her, but she was not so sure in that herself. Delia decided she needed to do something interesting with her day today, or she would go crazy counting the wallpaper pattern for the 245rd time.

  
‘No more than 2 minutes walking a day, Delia. You’re not strong enough yet, and you will cause yourself an injury’ she heard Patsy’s voice echo in her head from the other day. Delia decided to spite the other nurses’ advice and try and visit the canteen. She heaved herself to a sitting position, and stood up. She had to wait a while to regain balance, and set off down the long corridor.

  
Delia saw from the canteen’s window 7 body bags being loaded into a van. Not too unusual for a hospital, she knew that. But this was different. The coroner was dressed in a strange suit, almost like what a bee-keeper would wear, with a guard for her face, and huge gloves to transport the bags. A small mist formed on the window pane as she let her mind wander.


	9. changing perspectives mid chapter?? surely its a must in every fic???

Patsy was off duty and had changed into her tartan slacks and black shirt. It was a particular favourite for her. She finished tying her hair into plaits and collected her belongings from her locker. It had been 3 days since she snapped at Delia and she hated herself for it. The irrationality – the lack of respect… Patsy decided to go to Delia’s room to see if she wanted to go in her wheelchair around the grounds. She turned and paced through the familiar clinical white corridors and knocked 3 times on Delia’s door (2 quick, one after a delay of a few seconds)

  
‘Delia?’

  
She knocked twice.  
Patsy wasn’t sure what to do. She didn’t want to intrude if Delia was annoyed at her still – and rightly so. Or she could be sleeping…  
Patsy tried the handle and leant around the door slowly, the peered into the dark of the room and whispered Delias name now, but there was no answer so she switched on the light worrying if she was unconscious.  
Panic rose in her neck and patsy moved on instinct now. The room was empty and the wheelchair, still in the corner where patsy had left it.  
She ran out of the room leaving the door open and down a corridor which lead to the emergency ward, she turned and saw a row of 4 new body bags. A man wearing a ‘virus proof’ suit - as they were calling it – zipped the final bag, but not before Delia saw the purple and red face which looked ravaged and the eyes sunken. 

  
She had seen this before. What could he be doing here at 1am?

She knew it all too well. A tear threatened now to fall as patsy was bombarded with memories, and hoping that she could reach Delia in time. She turned without thinking and stopped right in front of a vigilant nurse crane.  
‘Nurse mount! What are we doing here off duty and RUNNING in these corridors’  
Patience inconspicuously brushed the tear away.

  
‘Hello Nurse Crane, I was wondering if you had seen Miss Busby? The patient that fell-’

  
Nurse Crane was already nodding as if raring to interrupt and answer the question so she could say her more important one.

  
‘Yes, yes nurse mount, about half an hour ago in the canteen. I must ask you to keep more of an eye on your patients as they do seem to like going ‘walkabout’…’

  
Patsy’s expression relaxed and she hoped that Delia was still where the nurse had said, she shifted on the balls on her feet, so she could dash

  
‘Thank yo-‘

  
Nurse Crane looked down, and suddenly became much more serious.  
‘Nurse Mount. I – I don’t know if I should say this. But I think the next few weeks are going to be very trying times here at the Hospital. Commencing tomorrow, I am going to move all of the patients in your ward away from the emergency ward. As far away as possible. I know you have…experience in this matter. And your vigilance is greatly appreciated. We have it controlled for now, but I fear it is only a matter of time.’

  
Patsy nodded furiously.

  
‘I think that is wise, Nurse. Please excuse me’.  
Patsy turned and set off.

  
‘No running!’

she heard nurse crane call from the background. She was not sure if there was a hint of sarcasm in her voice. She flew around another corridor and this time ran right into Delia. They both screamed.

  
‘..Delia!’ ‘Patsy?!’

  
The taller woman drew Delia in for a hug before she had time to refuse. She then remembered the dispute between them that started all of this and took a step back. They both were RED.  
‘Delia, I know I am starting to sound like a broken record now but I’m terribly sorry about the other day’  
‘Patsy, just tell me, just let me in and then I will be able to understand’ Delia had closed the gap between them again and held onto her arm.

  
P. Mount looked at the floor and looked at Delia for a looooooooooooong time

‘maybe someday…its difficult’. Patsy grew quiet again and Delia couldn’t communicate verbally anymore so she held one of N.patience’s hands in both of her own. Patsy looked around as this happened and she noticed the light at the very bottom of the corridor had just gone out.

  
Many of the lights flickered in the hospital. It was to do with the generator being overloaded and power shortages, she looked back at Delia had furrowed her brow ‘Pats what is it?’ she said turning around and back again.  
‘There’s no one there’ Delia let go of patsy’s hand now so they were both facing the other end of the corridor. Patsy wished she hadn’t and still could feel the ghost like presence of Delia’s hands on her own. 

 

  
‘I…I just’  
‘I think someone’s been on the whiskey…’

Delia playfully bumped her shoulder with patsy’s  
Just then, the next light along faded out to nothing  
Delia exhaled and whispered in her strong welsh accent

‘oh…ok…well I don’t know if that is a coincidence now’

  
Patsy was frozen to the spot. The 3rd corridor light went off. Delia made a quick observation that there were 7 remaining lights until they would also be plunged into darkness.  
‘Patsy, do you think we should move?.. I was a bit lost anyway, so you’ll have to show me the way back’ She winced as half of the corridor was in total darkness.  
‘Patsy?’

She looked at patsy, and the taller woman was whispering gibberish to herself. Delia shook her arm.

  
‘PATSY?’

  
Patsy was rooted to the spot and the next light along seemed to explode before it switched off. The flash illuminated the bone white of a human figure, all hollowed cheeks, eyes and temples. The skin looking almost bruised, as if all of the blood vessels had been brought up to the skin.

  
‘Can I help you???’

Her voice grew hoarse.  
No response. The darkness then called out with a guttural scream. It was akin to the ones she had been hearing in the dead of night from the emergency ward.  
Delia was beside herself now.

‘think think think’ she whispered to herself. She remembered patsy would have a lighter and reached into patsy’s pocket and retrieved the lighter. With only 25 seconds to go before this thing reached them, she could not leave patsy who was still in a state of shock. She grabbed her wooden crutch and lit the flammable cushioning she had improvised for the crook of her arm.

  
It lit furiously and the heat that was given off was MEGA.   
Delia threw the stick and the grey figure was illuminated much more. She saw the hollow of a white glassy eye and where the other should have been, a dark shadow. The creature recoiled at the light, and took a step back. Its leg had caught fire and Delia had never been more grateful for the NHS’ very own highly flammable compulsory patient-wear. The creature looked like a beacon now, burning brightly. A human torch. Yet it still approached, and broke into a run. She had never been more terrified.

‘Delia. This way. NOW!’

  
Patsy had somehow overcome her shock and was now dragging Delia through the warren of dark passageways  
‘Don’t look back’  
Delia heard patsy say. She wondered if she was talking to herself as patsy continued looking straight ahead, running. They broke through a fire door and Delia barred it with her other crutch. They saw the fire figure slam into the door and it bared its teeth and snarled, trying to claw through the glass.  
The sound was piercing. The nail cutting the glass. They both winced.  
The shadowy man then fell to the floor as the flames engulfed the thin body. It was dead.


	10. o am gariad

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ive not read this because it was so painstaking . i think ive given up. review to revitalise. kudos to kill.

‘Wha…what was that thing??’  
Patsy took hold of her arm once again and they descended many flights of stairs. Delia had to stop and breathe heavily. ‘Patsy I can’t go on, my leg (I can’t even remember what injury she had) I can feel my leg wound it opening up again’  
Patsy finally looked around and at her and kneeled down to look at the stitches which were, the last time she checked, healing nicely and now they had come undone. Patsy tutted ‘this won’t do’.  
Delia noticed Patsy’s face was stained with tears.  
‘It’s not for now, just a few more yards’. Patsy stood up and crouched a bit so Delia could put her arm over patsy’s and she could take some of her weight. They approached a heavy duty door, and patsy unlocked 3 bolts and turned the middle part of the door that looked as if it was from a high security bank. The room looked as if it hadn’t been used since the war, and had many out of date tins of things from that time.  
‘What is this place?’ Delia hopped around, looking at the shelves and discarded radios that were lying around  
‘It’s a reinforced bunker, commissioned by Churchill in WW2, In case the Germans got to the Atom bomb first’ Patsy looked haunted. ‘I thought you could stay here while those things were upstairs. Nurse Crane said we are going to move all the non-infected patients here tomorrow. If they live that long…’  
Patsy trailed off and lit a cigarette, she stared wistfully at an old newspaper from 1943. Delia hobbled around and found a box that had commando knives in it and took one out. ‘I might be needing this’ she commented and attached it to her belt. Patsy read an article that rumoured about the death toll in the Japanese POW camps and how they were not at all observing the Geneva Convention. Patsy became distraught and burned the article out with her cigarette.  
A loud pop reverberated around the room as Delia had found a tin of sweetened pears. ‘Bingo’ she smiled and stabbed the top with her knife. Approaching the table, she set then tin down and fished out one with her knife, which he waved in front of patsy. Patsy shook her head and continued staring at the table.  
‘Patsy, are you sure you can’t talk about it?.. I mean, we are kind of in at the deep end here…Up the creek without a paddle?….small dog , tall weeds?...In welsh there is this one….’ She trailed off, aware of her babbling.  
Patsy just looked at Delia, in order to will her into not think of any more idioms.  
‘It’s a virus. Highly contagious. It causes the brain cells to die, and the only thing on one’s mind is ‘human flesh’’  
Delia’s eyes widened and her mouth hung open. Nodding slowly.  
‘I see…’  
Patsy pointed at the crate of dusty bottles and Delia reached down and blew the dust off one.  
‘1890. Classy!’ She opened the whiskey and chugged a fair amount before passing it to nurse mount. Delia moved a chair out of the table and winced as she sat down. She noticed Patsy not putting the bottle down for at least 10 seconds. She coughed slightly.  
They sat in silence for what felt like hours.  
‘But- how do you know all of this?’  
Delia tried to understand.  
‘Leave it Delia’ She swigged the bottle some more which was now 1/8 full.  
Delia didn’t like being told what to do or not to do as the case may be, but she respected patsy’s wish to not speak of the bone white figure who had repelled fure and tried to kill them.Patay went to the bottle cupboard. ‘ah…a lovely 1863 vintage. A great year for Scottish distillerys…’ she proclaimed and held the bottle to the light so its amber contents glistened.  
‘Something rather beautiful about it, do you agree?’  
‘I suppose..’  
Delia was sick of this and she felt crazy, as if patsy was missing the elephant in the room. Delia went in one of the adjoining rooms and found some men’s clothes that looked like they would fit her. She was glad to be out of the hospitals itchy nightgowns. She put her purple cardigan back on and adjusted her knife and belt. Quietly entering the main room, patsy was on her 8th cigarette and looked up drowsily from her head on the table resting place. The cigarette hung out of her mouth. Delia noticed the record player was on and Delia looked appalled  
‘Don’t you think something might hear this???’  
Patsy crumpled her face and snarked something about ‘completely soundproofed walls and door’.  
Delia then felt the familiar pain shoot up her spine and it flowed directly to her brain. ‘agh!’  
‘What is it?’ Patay looked concerned and had stood up as much as she could on unbalanced legs herself.  
‘Its.. My…leg’ delia grimaced ‘..Stitches’  
Delia fell to the ground and blacked out.

When she woke, patsy had instructed a makeshift operating table which Delia was now lying on.  
‘Patsy what are you doing?...have you ever operated on anyone before??...’  
‘Delia I have to close the wound again, these things are worse than sharks, they can smell blood from miles away’  
Delia looked up more.  
‘And what tools do you have here??? Your mothers sewing kit??’  
Patsy was disgusted at Delias comment and mention of her mother.  
‘No Delia. I have this medical grade string and a proper needle.’  
‘Now lie still’  
‘I’m going to sterilise the wound now.’ Patsy’s tone had become serious, professional again. It didn’t really reassure Delia, as the seemed to change in a split second to a different person.  
Patsy poured the whiskey over the shin wound.  
Delia cried out in pain.  
‘That is the worst bit over. ’  
Patsy quickly and efficiently stitched the wound. ‘There.’ Patsy smiled at her work ‘Should be good as new in no time!’ She beamed.  
Delia was less grateful than she could have been, because the only pain relief she had was alcohol. She took another swig.  
‘Thank you. It feels a lot better’


	11. Chapter 11

A few hours passed and Delia had been passing in and out of consciousness from the pain. Patsy was pacing the floor. She hadn’t noticed delia was awake ‘if you keep going you’ll wear a ditch into the floor’ Patsy turned and acknowledged delia who was still looking worse for wear. She checked her pocket watch.  
‘patsy, if youre tired, I can do a stint and watch the door. Im used to staying awake for long periods of time in the night’ she nodded and smiled endearingly before frowning.  
‘I don’t think youre up to it delia. Get some rest. It will be morning soon’  
Delia sat up to protest and realised she shouldn’t have moved so fast and clutched at the bandage. She retreated back and sighed angrily. She shut her eyes.

Delia awoke from an incredibly restless dream where whe had been tossing and turning. The pain had woken her, and the hangar was completely dark. ‘Patsy?’  
She called out into the darkness.  
‘Pats?’ she fumbled to the side of her bed and found a packet of matches and lit the candle by her bed.  
‘…pats? Are you asleep?’ Delia dragged herself to sit up and directed the candle around the small area. She was too concerned to be phased by the long shadows it cast. She squinted into the smaller corridor where the majority of the food was stored on shelves. She thought she saw a movement and wondered if Patsy was sleeping out of the way to give them both some privacy.  
‘Patsy?’ she whispered and the candle flickered under her breath.  
Suddenly, the crash of a tin hit the floor 180 degrees from where delia was looking. She whipped around and the candle with it. Now holding her bandages, which needed changing. The container was heavily soundproofed, so the noise disappeared as quick as it had happened. Delia knew something was not right. She quickly looked at the alarm clock on the table. It was 9AM. Where was Patsy?  
What had caused the tin to fall off the shelf?  
CRASH she saw a whole row of shelves and tins fall now. Some of the contents spilling and smashing and exploding on the floor. A tin of spam rolled and stopped at the edge of her bed. That was when she saw the thing shift again. Out of the shadow, she saw the sickly white colour of its almost-luminescent skin. She felt sick, and helpless, paralysed mentally and physically.  
The infected man dragged its left leg behind it and approached delia with its slow hobbling gait. It reached out its talon like nails and started moving faster.  
Delia looked around and grabbed the alarm clock and threw it with all of her might at one of the shelves, which managed to tip over and glasses of wine cascaded down onto the monster’s head. It growled and shook off the blow. Delia looked on with horror as there seemed to be no pain receptors on this thing, judging from the glass its bare feet was now walking on. The cracking under its feet was sickening.  
Delia braced herself now and wondered if there was any other makeshift weapon she could find within her reach.  
She grabbed her pillow and set it alight, remembering her other encounter with one of these things. the creatures eyes widened and then retreated slightly. Delia threw the pillow at it, and it managed to set alight some oil that had spilled on the floor. The roar of the flames matched that of the infected creature.  
The heat was phenomenal and delia realised it would be more likely that she would now die from the fire. She knew which way she would prefer to go and watched what happened next.  
After a moment frozen. The creature began to move towards the fire, and step on the pillow to put the fire out. Its black blood stained the pillow and merged with the oil on the floor. Delia looked in horror and started fumbling around, trying to lift herself and drag herself up into the corner. She managed to stand and hoist herself upright. As she took a step she fell to the ground. The creature’s hollowed features were extenuated now, as the backlight of the fire lit its bones and cast a shadow over delia who was using her hands to move backwards and drag her legs. Her back hit the corner of the wall and she knew it was over.  
The creature’s cheek had rotted away and its teeth were visible through the jaw. Delia closed her eyes and prayed for a miracle. The creature was inches from her face and its claws threw the candle she was holding to protect herself to the ground.  
It extinguished in the flight and smoked a small amount.  
Delia cried as there was a metallic cut and a gust of wind graced just inches past her face.  
A black spatter of blood stained the wall and she could smell blood.  
A hollow sound hit the floor and delia was hyperventilating and in a state of shock . her eyes were closed.  
‘Delia?’  
‘Delia its me’  
Delia felt something touch her hand and she began to lash out. Writhing in discomfort and crying  
‘GET! OFF! ME!’  
She managed to kick her attacker as hard as she could and it let out a stifled groan.  
‘Delia. DELIA.’  
Patsy tried to restrain delia’s hands and Patsy could feel delia getting weaker. Her muffled shouts of protest not being replaced with sobs.  
Patsy brushed some hair out of delias eyes and loosened her grup on her arms ‘delia its me…Patsy’  
Delia frowned and opened her eyes slowly, disbelieving what had just happened.  
‘P…did you… wha..?’ she looked around the small space and pieced together the information. The decapitated head, its contorted features. And the blood everywhere. ‘How…what…’  
Delia was overwhelmed and noticed patsy had a samurai sword attached to her outfit. She had changed from her nurse’s uniform to slacks and a checked shirt.  
‘You killed it?? With that thing’  
Patsy had been keeping quiet, respectfully, while delia was processing everything in her own time. She knew what it was like to go through shock and knew the brain needed time to deal with things.  
‘Yes Delia… That was why I left you, I had to go home and get this because I knew we would be needing it sooner or later. I thought a lot more Later. ’ her eyes widened and she looked behind her at the crumpled body ‘bot it looks as though it was much much sooner…’ she shook her head and looked angry at herself ‘if I was just a minute later…you would have …..you would have been….’

Delia resumed her sobbing and patsy leaned closer and they hugged each other until Delias tears stopped. Patsy cried too and wiped the tears away with her hand before Delia had a chance to see them. She kissed the top of delias head.


	12. oh

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW OF POWCAMPS SORRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  
> I ACTUALLY RESEARCHED REAL PEOPLES ACCOUNTS OF THIS AND, BOYO, THEY WERE BRAVE. I COULDN'T ACTUALLY BELIEVE THE CONDITIONS. INHUMANE.

Delia was watching patsy as she was washing the floor thoroughly. She had disposed of the bodies and warned Delia to not touch them as they were highly contagious. Delia washed her hands and tried not to breathe as she tiptoed past the area that the incident had happened.  
Her leg felt much better, as patsy had treated it with new bandages and she was able to move a lot more freely.  
‘If they are contagious, patsy, shouldn’t you be careful too?’ Delia was concerned and put her hand on the red haired woman’s shoulder. Patsy looked up.  
‘Delia. I have never told this to anyone…’ she raised her eyes and looked beyond Delia’s eyes ‘I’ve never had a reason to before now.’  
Delia nodded encouragingly.  
‘I’m immune to it.’  
Delia inhaled and patsy cut off her sentence before she had begun.  
‘I don’t know why. But I found out when I was six years old. In Japan.’  
‘You’ve never told me you’ve been to japan’ Delia looked excited, then realised something  
‘When you were…six….the WAR?!’ Delia crouched where patsy was now. A concerned look appeared and she wished she hadn’t thought aloud.  
Patsy was scrubbing the floor with disinterested vigour. Staring down hard, she knew she could not meet the other woman’s gaze without completely breaking down. Which wasn’t what they needed at this moment. The stared blankly at the floor.  
‘I was a prisoner of war…my ..f…family and I…’ she broke off. Her voice wavered and she did what she was willing herself and looked into the purest blue truth of Delia’s eyes. Patsy cried and Delia enveloped her in a protective embrace.  
‘Oh Cariad’ Delia whispered  
Patsy needed to tell someone her story. She thought about the next few days and she knew this was only the beginning. The chances of survival were slim, and even with her immunity, Delia was at a high risk of contracting the virus. She gained more composure and took a deep breath.  
Delia released her hold and they sat opposite one another.  
‘My father was a merchant trader. Me my mother, father and sister…’ Delia touched patsy’s arm and patsy held it with her other hand.  
‘We were captured by the Japanese in 1943, and my father was sent to the Hard Labour camp. I never saw him again after that day. My mother, sister and I were ‘luckier’ she forced a sniff of laughter. Delia looked at her eyes and saw they were glazed, as if not recounting her past, but an ancient lament.  
‘We also had to work, making roads, digging graves…. We were younger so we had to fetch and carry bricks and sacks of dirt… ’  
Patsy took a sip of Whiskey.  
‘Everyone was malnourished, we slept on concrete slabs. Eventually my mother died from the stress.’  
Delia was crying now and patsy looked up at her and touched the top of her arm.  
‘Don’t start me off again Delia’ she quietly reprimanded and Delia wiped her tears with her cardigan ‘…sorry’ she mumbled.  
‘It couldn’t get any worse. And then it did. I was working in the surgery and was used to the normal tropical illnesses. With the supplies we had, most of them died. The Japanese even intercepted the Red Cross aid parcels we had been sent, so we had to improvise everything, anything we could find would do as a needle, a bandage…. One day, one of the guards came into the surgery, showing his symptoms. His leg looked as though it was rotting from the inside out, and his eyes were yellow and bloodshot. The pupils dilated. The British army doctor said there was no known illness and sent him away. A week later the guard dropped dead and in the months after that, we had many more people showing the symptoms.  
There were screams at night. Pained shrieks. I still hear them sometimes….. Then the prisoners started going missing. We were told to dig more graves. Bits of bone were flung into them without a word. Everyone knew they were human bones.  
One night the outbreak spread and my Mother took ill. She told us to run, but my sister Jane wouldn’t leave her. We stayed and things got worse……’  
Patsy trailed off once again and dared not to know how Delia would be judging her. Of her actions. If she made the right choices.  
Patsy weakly inhaled  
‘Cariad, you don’t have to continue’  
‘Delia, I need to.’ She rose and stood facing the wall and rested her hand on it. Staring at her NHS issue shoes, she continued.  
‘I knew deep down it was too late for mother. The bite wound had infected one side of her body and it was a matter of time before she became one of the screaming creatures in the night. I knew we had to escape then, and my mother was so weak she didn’t have the strength to help us.  
Instead, she gave me all of the information she knew, and drew detailed maps of the guard’s offices with her good arm. I knew what I had to do. To try and make it out of there.  
It was a full moon and I snook out of our tent. I was good at moving around unnoticed. I had to head for the general’s quarters and find a key for the main exit. Getting in was easy, I was very small, so fit through a small air vent in the wall. Whilst I was looking for the key, I knocked over a lamp which smashed and set fire to the wooden floor. I also found this sword. I’ll never forget the way it shone in the flames, almost calling out to me…’  
‘The voices outside grew louder, screams and wails. I managed so crawl back through the vent with the sword and saw the creatures running towards me. They weren’t guards anymore, they had completely morphed into disgusting beasts.’ Patsy shook her head trying to shake off the memory. And sat next to Delia, back against the cold wall.  
‘I let my instinct kick in and put the sword to use. I felt as if it was protecting me somehow.’ Patsy turned the ornate samurai sword over in her hands now and gently passed it to Delia who instinctively took it with the gentlest of movements.  
‘The camp had taken to flames and I tried to look for my mother but I knew she was gone. I remembered her words ‘Run. Run , and don’t look back’ I tried to look for Jane but I knew the worst had happened. The fire I had started turned the whole place into a bonfire, the heat was unimaginable. I turned and took to the jungle, the 8 meter fence had burnt down and I ran for my life…’

Patsy’s eyes looked like marbles now. Glinting and catching the light.  
She unevenly shifted and waited for some sort of response from delia.  
‘How long were you alone…? Surviving?’ Delia’s face burst with concern and total devastation.  
‘Until the war ended. About 4 years.’  
Delia was pale, and she took a sip of the whiskey before passing patsy the flask.  
‘and Is that…Is that how it is spread? Through a bite?’  
Patsy replied as if she was prescribing pills to a patient  
‘If you are bitten, you will become one of them. No doubt about it. But I witnessed people contracting it just by proximity too’  
‘…so how are you immune?...’ she was confused.  
‘Let’s leave it there shall we?’  
Delia nodded and wondered where to go from this conversation.  
They sat in silence for an hour, their silent thoughts buzzing loudly in each other’s brain. Patsy rest her head on Delia's shoulder and Delia reciprocated on Patsy's head. They fell asleep.


	13. as u can tell im not reading this though

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> i cant remembre what was happening  
> also I realise there is little to no character development and all they do is progress nowhere and then fall asleep. sorry.

Patsy woke first and a beam of light from the air vent lit Delia's face. Patsy noticed her features and caught herself staring for a little too long. UNFORTUNATELY for her, Delia woke up at this very moment too.  
‘…How long have you been staring at me’ Delia looked amused and a little uneasy~.  
Patsy suddenly turned a shade of crimson.   
‘Sorry! I was just…..I think there was a bug on your face..........’  
Patsy grabbed the fly swatter and hit the fly on Delia's face and it drifted lifelessly to the floor…………….  
'oh....' Delia said slowly.  
Patsy walked away.


	14. namaste

Days passed and there was no more food in the container. Delia realised this.

‘Patsy, this is the last tin of spam, there’s nothing left’

her limp was almost gone and her wounds were all recovered. Patsy raised her eyes from her book. She sighed and put it to one side.

‘Looks like we are going to finally venture out’

Pats stared into the distance and sat up.  
The women knew everything about each other after being in such close proximity with each other for around 2 months. At times it had been hard to accept each other’s annoying habits, and some days they had fallen out, not talking to one another for hours at a time, or on a particularly bad argument; 2 days. Apart from this though the girls got on like a house on fire. There was often laughed and a playful atmosphere, given the noises outside and the occasional glowing eye through the window at night, they were in surprisingly high spirits.

Patsy sharpened her sword.  
‘Deels, tomorrow we are going to have to fight our way out of here. Do you think you will be able to?’  
Patsy’s face was the embodiment of concern.  
Delia thought about it for a few moments.

‘Yes. I have been doing the exercises and I think my leg will hold up. Should I have some sort of weapon to fight them?’  
‘I know you have your …skills, but yes.’

Patsy quipped, and reached in her pocket and pulled out an item.  
She handed it gingerly to Delia.  
Delia was confused, this is just a….? Patsy completed her sentence

‘yes, it’s just a necklace… but I think it will bring you luck, and it actually seems to repel them’ Patsy said with ultimate seriousness and nodded gravely, as if she had rehearsed her speech for hours.  
Delia was rather put out by this. How could she defend herself with this?  
Luckily she remembered about her 47 Black belts in various martial arts, and felt considerably calmer.  
They both took one last look around the dark room that had been their home for the last few months.  
‘Well, I won’t miss the sight of this place.’ Patsy remarked nonchalantly.  
Delia sighed in agreement. They shut the door.

 

-

Patsy moved through the corridors with expert precision and speed. Much like a shiny motorbike. She every now and again checked to see Delia was following behind. Delia found it difficult to navigate through the black hallways, with only periodic slices of moonlight guiding their way.

  
Delia ran around a corridor, following patsy, and slammed into her. Patsy put her finger to her lips and gestured to the darkness. They heard the creature dragging its feet towards them. Its eyes glinting in the distance. They backed into the wall further. Delia found it hard to control her breathing. Her body was not yet used to the amount of exercise, and the terrifying situation she was in made it hard to be calm.

  
She moved closer to patsy so that their arms touched. Delia tried to focus on Patsy’s restrained breaths. So controlled. And her face. Neutral? Her eyes showed presence, but there was a numbness too. An almost, rehearsed expression…

CHILL

Delia focused on patsy’s breathing and regulated hers to a level where she felt a lot better. The creature came to the crossroads and paused. The who held their breaths, as the creature screamed and smelt the air. Delia reached her hand down to find patsy’s, who was there immediately to grab it .  
They waited for what felt like an eternity. Delia shut her eyes, and patsy stared, blankly at the wall.  
The creature turned and disappeared down a corridor.  
They waited until they couldn’t hear the monsters feet scuffing the floor. Patsy started  
‘Are you ok, Deels?’  
Delia nodded furiously, more concerned with patsy. She began in a whisper.  
‘Patsy, you can’t be used to this. You look like you’ve seen a ghost’  
Patty rolled her eyes and waited for Delia to realise what she had said.  
Delia smiled a little ‘maybe not the best turn of phrase in the current situation…’ she scrunched her nose and laughed. Patsy squeezed her hand in reassurance ‘thank you for your concern but I’m fine. I’m used to this…’ she trailed off and let go of Delia’s hand.  
The welsh lady was pretty sad at that.


	15. turnadette, bright eyes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone. I hope you’re all well. I’ve noticed in almost every fic I’ve read, Patsy is spelt Pasty at least once. Do you think Patsy would like Pasties? Leave in the comment what you think her fave flav would be.

Our duo made it out of the hospital, and daylight broke. The pair sat on a bench in Hyde Park.   
Silence reigned over them. 

‘So… shall we have code names or something?’

Patsy didn’t know what she had just heard and looked at DB.

‘I’m sorry?’

Delia started again

‘You know, code names, like they did in the war…In case one of us gets into ~trouble~’

Delia emphasised the word trouble and patsy assumed she was talking about last night.   
Patsy rolled her eyes.

‘Delia. I don’t intend there to be a repeat of last night ever again.’

Just as she said this in a louder than normal voice, a couple walked past and huffed slightly at Patsy's choice of words. She lowered her voice and sat up more squarely now. 

‘If anything …happened... why couldn’t I just use your actual name?’

Delia realised the flaw in her plan and squinted. She took a while, then:  
‘Well, you know, to hide our identities? Come on pats, keep up’

Patsy didn’t know if she was angry or amused and was about to speak  
‘We’d call you…Ninja.’  
Delia looked relatively happy with the name, Patsy looked mortified  
‘I don’t think that is covert in the slightest!’ she scoffed  
‘Patsy, you have a samurai sword strapped to your waist...  
In the middle of Hyde park...  
in the day time…’ 

Patsy tutted and folded her arms.

‘And mine will be Dragon. For the Welsh connection’

At this point delia looked around to see exactly how far she had wound patsy up, and turned to face an empty bench. Turning in a 360 she saw no trace of the other woman.

‘Victory.’ Thought Delia.


	16. teach me tiger...w0h w0hw0hw0h

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> hi so feel free to write a sentence and ill include it in the fic. how is it going. be honest. krgds

Delia looked at the morning’s paper. The man on the cover looked familiar somehow. She then immediately realised when she read the headline:  
“MISSING MAN: TONY AMOS”  
“Any information, please report to the police”  
Delia’s heart flipped and she suddenly remembered about her best friend who had been badly discarded as a plot point. She read the article twice, then folded up the sections that were about him and put them in her pocket. She continued to read the paper.  
The article seemed to say that Tony had vanished, and not been taken by police. Which meant they didn’t know his secret, Delia thought.  
She cut two eyeholes into the newspaper and decided to watch the commuters for a while, in the mask of her newspaper reading insignificance. Having relocated now to a busier area of London, the working people of London paid her no spare glances. She almost drifted off to sleep when she saw a striking flash of super shiny metal.  
Focusing through the newspaper, she recognised the girl immediately.  
Discarding the paper, Delia decided she would follow patsy to see where she was going. Delia kept her distance so patsy wouldn’t notice her. She had read many James Bond novels and knew the basics in spy fundamentals.  
Patsy moved through a crowd so efficiently. People seemed to part to let her through. Delia reasoned, maybe it was the sword. But she didn’t think that was the full reason. The crowd once re-joined as they passed the taller nurse and Delia found it surprisingly difficult to keep track.  
London twisted and turned, the richer areas, the poorer areas.  
Delia thought the distribution of wealth and the poverty divide was alarming. She walked the poorer areas of London with new eyes. Having been pretty centralised to the nurses home and only visiting these areas while speeding through them in an ambulance she was shocked at ‘how the other half lived’.  
Having gone on a socio-political / economic brainwave for the last few minutes. Delia noticed that patsy was nowhere in sight. She turned around and saw a local cat.  
‘Have you seen a tall ginger haired lady?’ Delia whispered to the snaggle tooth. It surveyed her in glowing eyes and leaped down from its perch. It disappeared into a grey alley.  
Obviously Delia followed her feline pal…

 

It was as if she was walking into an abyss. Dark.  
She heard the cat meow and then a weird gruff voice ‘who is it. Show yourself’  
Light then beamed in Delias eyes and she held her hand to her eye  
‘Delia? Delia Busby. Nurse’  
The light vanished with a click and a quieter more familiar remark came ‘I thought it was dragon.’  
Delia laughed into the dark and patsy exhaled a laugh and half smiled.  
In the darkness, there was the squeaking of a door, as patsy prised open the back gate of a grand looking Edwardian house. She held out her hand and Delia’s eyes had adjusted slightly to the moonlight , so she grabbed her hand, having no idea where they were actually going. 

 

-

-

‘Where are we going???’  
Delia demanded to know now as she was getting sick of all of the unexplained stuff that patsy seemed to have trigger.  
‘My house’ Patsy gave a prim response.  
She then sighed and dropped her pretences. ‘Or at least it was. I haven’t been back in quite some time. ‘  
After crossing the paddock, and the formal garden, they headed to the vegetable garden, and finally to the house. Delia blew the dust from one of the windows and peered in. It reminded her of what miss Havisham’s house would have looked like in Great expectations.  
‘Patsy. When you say ‘a long time’ just how long did you mean? I was expecting 1 or 2 years…’  
’24. 25? Ish’  
Delia was alarmed when patsy smashed the smaller window pane near her and tried the handle. It swung open.  
‘Clockwork.’ She commented with a great dose of satisfaction.


	17. fanart

pls can someone draw me some fanart thanks , i would like to include it in the fic so it feels complete. i will of course credit you


	18. draft

 

 

Patsy's house was big . she hadn’t visited for a long while.

  
‘I haven’t visited here in a long while’  
‘The narrator already said that patsy…’

Delia added.  
Patsy looked vaguely annoyed and continued through to a room with many dust sheets over furniture. The pair pulled the sheets from the room and were met with clouds of dust.  
They unearthed a giant dining table, ornate tables and a chaise longue . Bookshelves lined the wall.

  
Delia wanted to tell patsy about tony. She also wanted to get to the bottom of what happened in the hospital. But she didn’t know how patsy was, as she was more quiet than normal.

  
‘Nice place this, Patsy. I don’t think I've ever been anywhere so grand...’  
Patsy scoffed.  
‘We hardly were ever here…’ she looked away, then continued.

  
‘We moved around a lot, my family and I, this house was a sort of ‘gift’ to my father, but, as you can see it never was much use to us…’ she trailed off again.  
Delia was interested still.

‘So, im guessing you don’t live here’ she said, running her finger along the table and examining the sheer amount of dust.  
‘I’m sort of in between homes at the moment…’  
Delia was perplexed and her silence willed patsy to continued

  
‘Since my father died, he left this house to me, along with a yacht.’

  
Delia's eyebrows rose higher than her fringe at the thought of a yacht.

  
‘so why don’t you live here then?’ Delia was full of thought  
‘It’s too far away from the London, and it brings back …memories’

  
Patsy looked down, here eyes still steeled, yet Delia could see the intense emotion behind them. She was keen to change the subject.

  
‘I used to live in the nurses home’  
Delia’s eyes lit up ‘That’s where I live! Or at least I did…it’s been so long since I was here last…I wonder if they know how I am…..’

Her eyes narrowed

  
‘If you lived in the nurses home, why hadn’t I seen you before that night with the burn victims?’  
Patsy shrugged

  
‘Different schedules I suppose… I have a lot of ‘extra curricular’ activities at night too’  
Delia was about to ask what the bloody hell ‘extra curricular’ activities meant, when pats added  
‘Well, then I moved to Nonnatus house’ Patsy strained the syllables of the name.  
‘What? The nunnery?!’

Delia was amused and laughed  
‘I didn’t imagine you as a nun pats’ she was still giggling  
‘’there is nothing amusing about these nuns Delia. Do me a favour and never visit there alone.’  
‘…o k a y’ Delia was still sort of amused and really it was exhausting to keep up with patsy’s drama all of the time so she took her words with a pinch of salt and then yawned.  
‘Does this place have any bedrooms?’ she said in between a yawn, covering her mouth .  
‘Many. Go ahead. Choose one’ she waved her hand to the stairs, and Delia disappeared. patsy finished her drink, and rose from her seat. She wistfully looked around the room and remembered when her and her sister used to stay there when they were children. She turned out the light.

 

* * *

 

 


	19. byw heb farw

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> dont worry. i have the story planned. i think i cant really be bothered to finish it though. sorry
> 
> //also i cant remember if ive repeated myself sometimes previously in the story

The Natural light of dawn  flooded through Delia's window, as she realised there were no curtains.

‘Rats’ she whispered and turned to try and shield the sun from her eyes. She re awoke some time later, and heard a strange clicking noise. She decided to follow the noise, which led her to the attic. She saw the stairs of a latter,

‘Patsy?’ she shouted up. The noise continued and Delia decided to climb the ladder.

Delia was shocked when her eyes rose to the level of the attic. There she saw a rack of swords, bows, arrows, and two punchbags, which patsy was currently making light work of.

‘Patsy!’ Delia was shocked to see what she saw.

Patsy whipped around and was really embarrassed and mildly annoyed that Delia had found her, she rushed over.

‘Delia you shouldn’t be in here ‘

But Delia had quickly climbed up and was already admiring the artefacts.

‘Patsy HOW do you have all this stuff. And w h y?’

‘are you sure you're ready for this’ patsy inhaled .

Delia interjected ‘Actually pats, I need to just tell you something which i'm not sure is connected but I cant believe I haven’t told you yet. My whole has been upside down lately and I cant believe I have forgotten..’

‘Delia please spit it out’

Delia reached in her pocket and retrieved the crumpled news article.

‘Do you remember the man I was with when we brought he burn victims in?’

'The one who almost restrained you from having a go at me?'

Patsy’s features were kind, wistful.

Delia’s features curved into a smile. ‘The very same’

She told patsy how he went missing and how no one had heard of any info on his disappearance.

 ~ 

Patsy looked pensive .

‘Delia . it sounds potentially very dangerous for tony.  But if he is anywhere. I know where he will be. ‘

Delia's eyes were wide ‘where!?'

Patsy frowned. This ties into the my conversation too…’

Then she inhaled once more, ready to tell the tale.

‘Delia, I doubt you would forget in a hurry, but do you remember the creatures in the hospital?’

‘hm..let me think about that pats…the ones who nearly tried to have my arm off and our brains for tea….hmm…you will have to be more specific’

 Patsy was shocked Delia could be so bold in the face of this danger. But each to their own. And as coping methods go. It was pretty ok. Better than hers for the first few years…

Delia whacked patsy’s arm, ‘Yes of course I do Patsy’

Patsy rolled her eyes, half amused, and delia willed her to continue.

‘Well, people think it’s a sort of virus, like the plague or a deadly flu.’

Delia nodded.

Patsy noticed the silence, and inhaled once more.

‘But it’s more than that. It didn’t just ‘come about’ like normal coughs and colds, but natural germs and bacteria. This one was engineered by people, and accelerated so it became, deadly, fatal…’

Patsy sat down on the cushioned mat and leaned on the wall.

‘But why?? How do you know this Patsy?’ Delia crouched then sat, to try and have eye level with patsy, wondering if she would get any information from her eyes, but the woman's gaze was steeled, as always.

Patsy trusted Delia and decided to confide her deepest secret.

‘Well.. In the war when I was in the Camp, there was a hut, where no one was allowed to enter, and no one returned. Not even the doctor was allowed in. At night, there were these wretched noises from the hut… much like the ones we heard at the hospital.’ She raised her eyebrows.

Delia sniffed at the memory.

‘In the daytime, you could see the glinting of scientific equipment , test tubes, beakers, all filled with black liquid. I think this was where they were developing the virus and testing it on us…

Then as they are designed to do , it started to spread and you know that part of the story… first the prisoners, then inevitably the guards.’

‘How is it contracted then?’ Delia thought about this medically, for a moment.

‘Initially, they injected the liquid into the poor poor people… then once they had it… it is transferred with a single scratch.’ Patsy began to waver now, as the memories washed over her again.

'a scratch...' Delia repeated. Thinking about if she had ever been in such close contact with them.

Delia moved to sit beside patsy, their backs leaning on the attic wall.

‘Patsy, if you don’t want to continue, you really don’t have to sweetheart’

The term of endearment made patsy’s heart lift and she remembered  her cause .

‘Thank you Deels, but I’m fine. I need to tell you the full story’

‘When I ‘escaped’, I lived in Japan for many years. The Virus swept the country and killed millions. I was only 14 and had to survive out in the wild, as towns and cities were deadly places’

‘If millions died, how come nobody knows about the virus then?’ then Delia's eyes widened ‘…the atom bomb?’

‘-yes’ Patsy affirmed.

‘The government covered up the story?!’ Delia said, outraged.

Patsy continued ‘We just won the war, I guess they didn’t want the ‘bad morale’ of a biological war just after the horrors of the last one.’

‘So in all that time you were alone? In japan? In the wilderness?’

Patsy nodded her head. ‘I had my katana too, of course..’

Delia once again was lost for words and just nodded. She was not often lost for words, and stood up. She began to Punch one of the punching bags furiously, and bouncing up and down.

‘Delia, what are you doing?’

‘Patsy, If these things are running around London, I have to prepare myself!’

Patsy saw the logic, ‘well, ok, but if you must, please wear the gloves. ‘ She gestured to the gloves on the shelf. Delia went to get them and put them on. She couldn’t fasten the second glove, so patsy got up and helped. Delia walked back over. Jabbing at the bag.

‘So anyway where was I… Yes. So nobody I ever spoke to got to the bottom of how or why it was invented. Some think it was a Japanese side project, and others think it was part of Hitlers master plan…’

Delia landed a right hook onto the bag and it flew up high and hit patsy.

‘Whoa there!’

‘Oh cripes, sorry patsy’

Patsy dusted herself down and laughed ‘it’s ok, just let me know when you are going to go all ‘incredible hulk’ on me’ Delia shifted, slightly embarrassed.

‘sorry, its just whenever anyone mentions that name, I think of my brother…’

‘I didn’t know you had a brother Delia’ Patsy was interested

‘I don’t, anymore’ Delia started punching again, and patsy thought it would be useful if she braced the bag.

‘He – got shot down in the battle – of – Britain’ *punch* ‘he was only 18’ *punch* ‘I lost my best friend that day’ Delia's punches began to slow and she turned, crying.

‘Sorry you have to see me like this, its just, I don’t really ever talk about him, its too painful…’ Delia sobbed and patsy tentatively removed the gloves.

Patsy sat opposite her and lay a hand on her shoulder.

‘seems as though the war took so much from us all.’ Delia met patsy’s gaze and her eyes were red and swollen.

The silence was their understanding.

 

 

 

 


	20. this isnt a chapter

i just wanted to show you a gif  



	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well after the frankly . rave reviews. Im back .
> 
> Please. Please. Contain yourselves.
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> So after the hectic fake not effective drama of the last chapter . here we are.

 

Pats dug out a sheet of paper from the back of a dusty wardrobe. She began etching the plans of ‘Nonnatus House’ as she had so efficiently titled it. The pair had regrouped in the kitchen and Delia was breathing in her Tea.

‘Patsy are you sure there is no milk in here?’

‘For the last time Delia, no. Its black coffee, or black tea, or you can put up with water.’

Patsy did not look up and was still sketching with much dexterity.

Delia huffed and went back to steaming her face.

After a while of patsy huffing and making several frustrated *tsks*, she turned the makeshift map around.

‘Delia. Tonight I am going to rescue your friend. If I’m honest I had already been planning something like this. Something strange is happening at Nonnatus house.’

Delia was intrigued.

‘Every night, like clockwork, the lights go out at 7.30pm’

‘Well, that’s not unusual patsy, Nuns have strange schedules’ Delia tried to speak sense.

‘No, Delia. All of the streetlights turn off within a mile radius of the place. The cars won’t start. Phones not working.’

‘How do you know that?’

‘Because I have been gathering research.’

Delia didn’t even care at this moment and just accepted it.

‘What I need you to do, Delia, Is to stay here and keep safe while I rescue your friend.’ Patsy stated matter of factly, and began to straighten.

‘Stay here???? Patsy I could HELP YOU!’ Delia looked incredibly hurt.

‘Delia, It wouldn’t be appropriate. I know your leg wouldn’t be able to handle the strain, and where i'm going is dangerous. I couldn’t lose you too…’ She barely whispered the last line.

Patsy turned and walked to the stairs to pack her bag for the night raid at Nonnatus house.

 

Delia was so sick of patsy’s ‘hero complex’ that she decided to ignore her for the rest of the night.

It was getting to 1AM and Delia was still sitting in the kitchen with the black tea that she had not drank. She also had found a bottle of expensive imported whiskey, which she took a swig of. Patsy appeared at the doorway with a huge scout rucksack on her back that rattled like metal whenever she waked. Patsy’s expression was gentler now and she looked at Delia over the room and smiled

‘Thank you for your understanding Delia’

Delia did that head tilt thing ‘I get it. You need to do this yourself. Just be careful.’

 Patsy smiled one last time and shifted towards the door.

‘Pats! One second’

Patsy reversed and looked through the door again.

‘A shot of Dutch courage before you go? For luck?’

Patsy gave her a knowing look, and skipped into the kitchen. She reached for the bottle that Delia was reaching over to her, and took it.

As patsy’s arm outstretched, Delia noticed her shirt sleeve was rolled up more than it normally did.

Then Delia noticed a wide black scar that ran all of the way up patsy’s arm, and disappeared underneath the sleeve. She stood up and took the bottle from patsy, and in the same movement, with the up-most concern, began to move her sleeve.

‘Pats…….’ her face was gentle, but in shock.

Patsy grabbed Delia’s wrist in that instant and threw it away.

She mumbled something unintelligible and ran out into the night.

Delia was left wondering what had happened and froze. She found herself at the open door, looking out into the stillness of the night.

She had seen those marks before. On the creatures.  

 

Delia now knew more than anything that patsy was in trouble. Of course she was not going to sit in the empty house when something important and potentially life threatening was going to happen.

She also desperately wanted to find tony.

Delia ran upstairs and grabbed a selection of swords. She also remembered patsy had left the map of her Nonnatus route, so took this and headed out.

 

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 


	22. brevity is the soul of this fic

 

Patsy knew the area like the back of her hand. And it helped that she did, because all the lights were out, and there were undead creatures roaming the streets.

She kept to the edges and corners of the street and ended up in the courtyard that was enveloped by the shadow of Nonnatus. She noticed there was a sudden influx in creatures round the building.

She saw this more and more, and her theories were beginning to piece together. She crawled behind a car for a closer look, and her rucksack rattled, which seemed to alert the creatures. They started to smell the air and recognise the scent.

Patsy successfully navigated around them, as their shouts got quieter, and managed to evade them. 

Creeping to the back door, she tried the handle.

Strangely it was open, and swung freely with a gentle push.

She entered Nonnatus.

 

Delia was watching patsy climb the back gate from afar. She also saw the creatures that seemed to have settled down after sufficient patrolling.

The deadly silence of the night was then killed by the shrill sound of singing. It was the nuns. In other circumstances, Delia would be comforted by this. The notion of people singing together, a very initial, basic human way to connect. But this seemed different.

What nuns have compline at 2am?

When there was no more sign of patsy, she decided to follow her footsteps and where patsy had taken a few static jumps and heaves to get over the fence, Delia made a run for it and expertly hopped it in one. Feeling more than adequate. She thought it was strange patsy had left the door ajar, and proceeded.

 

 

 

Patsy crept towards the main staircase. Keeping to the shadows, as the house was lit with candles. The floorboards amplified her every step, and she kept a hand on her katana. Then it started. The singing.

Patsy froze for a moment when the choir of voices reverberated through the wooden hallways. She hated this place.

The nuns were singing something she had not heard before when she was living at Nonnatus. This was different. At first she thought it would be a new psalm – sometimes they had new songs for special religious feast days, or times in the religious calendar. Then patsy remembered the time, and couldn’t think of any such religious events that would warrant such noise. The pitch was so shrill, that it began to hurt Patsy’s ears, so she blocked an ear, and approached the corridor where the chapel was.

The light under the door shone green, and there was a pungent smell of something that resembled gunpowder, or another burnt smell. 

 

Patsy wondered what to do now. Her adrenaline was racing. She knew she was getting to the bottom of a lifelong search that had torn her family apart, and ruined her life. And now, she could finally figure out the mystery.

The singing became faster and more frantic. Patsy began to hear snippets of words

‘Purge’

‘Sin’

And ‘transform this mortal flesh’.

As the voices broke and fell silent, there was a greater flash of light, followed by a blood-curdling scream. This time it was not of a creature. It was of a man.

 Her mouth was dry and she decided to step away from the door. She knew of a different entrance to the chapel, and opened the small door to the choir loft. The small wooden spiral staircase was only wide enough for one, and she noticed something blacking the light from reaching her at the top.

It was an undead creature. A large man with a few stray white hairs on the sides of its head. It turned around and raced down the steps towards patsy.

Even with the disfigurement that being dead caused to the skin, the creature still regained many of his original features. The ruddy cheeks, the slight moustache. Patsy stared blankly as he ran towards her.

‘Fred...’ she whispered.

The creature was inches away from her now, claws reaching out, and teeth bared, the bruised, sunken eyes wide. She reached for her sword without thinking and struck the man down. She lowered him gently and tried to gracefully step over him in order to reach the choir loft.

Patsy wiped a tear from her cheek. Fred had been such a nice and pleasant man. It was such a shame. Such a waste.

Luckily the encounter had been pretty silent, and the nuns were still on with their ‘ritual’ so patsy dropped to the floor and crawled to the balcony ledge, which she managed to look over in the darker corner, without her red hair being too visible.


	23. dydd fanart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> hey. remember i asked for fanart? well i GOT SOME!  
> pretty cool, huh.  
> and no, before you ask , i didnt make it myself.

slight criticism, it does highlight the one part of the fic that i hate now , which was the paragraph on nicknames, which i wrote when i was drinking whiskey. so there is that. i could delete it i suppose. But overall i thank the artist graciously. 


	24. old friends

Delia lost sight of patsy in the dark and turned a corner and ended up in the room she had just been in. Or was it?

She then saw the green light and heard the frantic voices from a stained glass gallery that looked into the chapel. She kept to the corners and peered in inquisitively.

She saw many nuns standing around and green light eminating from their outstretched hands. Then she panned to where the nuns seemed to be focusing their attention, a man, weak, limp, lifeless, slumped on the altar.

Delia’s veins ran cold. She knew the man. It was tony.

She froze... Not knowing what to do.

Where was patsy? She hoped she wasn’t in there

Delia knew what she would have done if this was a routine ST. Johns ambulance call out . She would have stormed in a politely but firmly took control of the situation. But her feet seemed to be stuck.

It was then when she heard shuffling behind her.

She turned with a startled jolt, and was faced with three creatures. Which began to sniff the air around them.

‘Oh cripes…’ Delia whispered silently, mostly to regulate her breathing

She fumbled for the sword that she had attached to her belt, just as the smallest of the creatures started to approach. Delia breathed and tried to remember what patsy had told her (which I think was basically nothing). The creature was small, with small mousy features, and had hair in a very plain brown bob. Despite her appearance and stature, the creature was surprisingly nimble, and although, the normal person could make the distance in a simple 5 paces, this creature somehow did it in 50.

Delia was thoroughly confused by this and it threw her off-guard for the first swipe that the creature threw at her. Delia threw her bodyweight to the left and dodged the mouldy clawed arm. The other two creatures screamed behind them and blacked any exits.

Delia pushed from against the wall and stood up. She wielded the sword and made a slicing slash at the woman. She managed to cut the creatures hair, so it was a lot more stylish.

It stopped for a moment, and considered its appearance in the reflection of a stained glass panel. Without thinking what on earth was going on, Delia lunged with the sword and the creature retreated, eventually falling to the floor and stopping.

The others turned and looked at the first creature and began to shout louder. Delia moved her hair from her eyes and readied herself for the next attack. She was also glad that the nuns had begun to chant, because the noise of the creatures would have surely been audible otherwise.

 

The next wave was a creature with no face, yet had a perfectly blonde, perfectly styled pixie cut. Despite it not being able to see, it seemed to have superhuman hearing and stylishly circled around Delia.

Delia was spinning in circles and could not get an accurate view of where to attack because she was so dizzy and the creature was moving so fast

The creature pushed her to the floor and Delia hit her head.

The giant one then approached Delia, as if in slow motion. It wore glasses, yet both of the lenses were smashed.

Delia was desperately trying to crawl backwards from the creatures, still with her sword outstretched, warding them away from her.

She was terrified, as the taller creature seemed to have what could only be described as a smile on its face, and the blonde one, despite its lack of facial features seemed to have its head tilted on a 45 degree angle, and had a skip in her step, as they advanced towards the ever slowing Delia.

 

Delia was fighting hard to stay conscious after hitting her head, and suddenly she backed into something quite solid. But it was not a wall, as it made a slightly amused snort.

Delia craned her neck up to see who it was. Never had she been so happy to see a familiar face. A friendly face. Her saviour.

The girl who was looming over her now slowly looked down and smiled calculatedly back at her.

‘Hello Delia’

Delia returned the woman’s smile, though, how she did, in the state she was in, she did not know. She thought for a millisecond she could detect a slight hint of amusement in the woman’s eyes, then discarded that as delirium as she remembered the current situation.

‘Jenny’.


	25. dych chi'n nyrs?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is dedicated to my one and only review of the week. Molly. There you go
> 
>  
> 
> If you would like a chapter dedicating to you, please go ahead and comment.   
> Also accepting bribes over £5 to sway the story. any way you want ;)
> 
> Also at uni now so will likely abandon the story

Jenny stepped over Delia, as if she were a discarded bag of rubbish and faced the two creatures that were now perilously close.

Delia had never been so relieved to see someone in her life. Not even patsy in the hospital.

‘Jenny, be careful! These…things they are dangerous!’

Delia’s voice was hoarse but she needed to warn her friend.

Jenny’s face stayed neutral. She folded her arms. She was wearing her navy midwife coat.

The creatures stopped advancing and stayed a few meters away from where Delia and jenny were.

She leaned and peered down the corridor, staring at the lifeless creature that was now in a giant pool of blood.

‘Ooh. Indeed. I can see that Delia’

Jenny turned back to Delia, wincing. ‘Did you do that?’

Delia nodded frantically, trying to stop her vision from blurring and trying desperately to stay sitting upright.

‘You need to…..yo-  u need to k-kill them’

Jenny then looked serious and crouched to Delia’s level

She whispered

‘you’re right. I will… Do I just get em with this?’ she lightly touched the sword, as if inspecting to find the edge. Jenny laughed too much and Delia felt strange. Jenny then stood back up and kicked Delia’s sword out of her hand.

The adrenaline meant Delia was not responding to her pain receptors much at this point but she managed to yell out s strangled

‘what...JENNY.... NOOO‘

Jenny then turned her back to Delia

Her voice changing to the tone Delia had heard her use on the ward.

‘Seize her.’

The creatures then sprung into motion and dragged Delia up. Delia was surprised at their strength. She tried to kick out and break fre,  but the woman with the glasses seemed to have a grip of iron.

Jenny stroked Delias cheek ‘Delia I am so sorry it’s turned out like this’

She laughed to the sky and continued leading them round the corridors.

‘You just can’t trust people these days, can you?’

‘I didn’t think you would ever fall in with patience, but here you are. Playing ‘bait’ while she sneaks around…’

'patsy....' Delia said inaudibly. 

‘I think this will get her attention though…’

Jenny broke off and slowed to a halt.

‘I think it’s about time we saw mother superior, don’t you?’ she smiled and lead the way into the chapel


	26. All hallows eve

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Happy Halloween .I wrote this on the train home on my phone so. You can say I give you no less than prime cuts of quality

Patsy was planning her next move, watching the nuns from the choir loft. She wondered whether to go straight for sister julienne, out to sneak atropine the corners, like a shadow picking the weaker ones off one by one so noone would notice.  
She figured that the latter would mean there was more chance of keeping Tony alive.  
Her vengeance toward sister julienne was swaying her decisions.  
Trying to kill her first would mean all of the nuns would kill Tony instantly and then they would turn all of their evil force on her.

But how could she let this woman live? She had caused such sorrow, grief and most importantly: pain. To millions of people.

Sister julienne had collaborated with the Japanese in the war, giving them the virus. And in return the Japanese and Germans had to agree to develop the magic with their advanced science.

Sister Julienne had a master plan. She knew that nonnatus house would be safe during the war with the deal that she had made , and during this time, the Japanese made deadly advances.  
Word had made its way to her about the spread of the disease in Japan, and its most contagious status during this time.

This worried the sister because she planned for the virus to spread to a very specific sort of person...

 

  

 

Patsy had enough of writing up the pros and cons of bumping off Sissy J. And made a choice.

 

At this very point the green light flickered and failed leaving a thread of smoke in its wake and no more. Suddenly the candle lit chapel seemed much larger and the shadows deeper.

Sister julienne waved her hand and Tony fell to the floor of the altar.  
They all turned to the door in unison. The singing fell silent.

Patsy crouched further and started to panic. Noone ever interrupted them during complan?? Then she concluded with one sickening thought.

Three strong knocks were sounded at the door.

'Enter'  
Sister julienne commanded.

The heavy oak door swung steadily open.

Patsy saw the figure of Jenny first. She rolled her eyes at the sight of her. There weren't many people worse than jenny. Someone that would do anything, trample over anyone to get further in life. Patsy supposed that was why she had no friends.

'ah. Jenny. To what do we owe this pleasure'  
The sister raised her arms wide and smiled a radiant smile.  
It was strange to think a woman who looked this welcoming would be capable of such evil.

Jenny stepped up and regarded the nuns. Her eyes were wide with anticipation.  
'mother superior. I have a guest with me tonight, which you will be all too thrilled to meet.'

The nuns mumbled happily to each other and sister julienne laughed melodically. Clapping her hands once and raising them to her mouth.  
'Well then. Show her in! It would be our pleasure to receive this most honoured guest!'

Jenny was beaming and then she became utterly serious. She clicked her fingers.

Patsy recognised the figures of the impossibly tall and prim blonde creatures. Her eyes then darted to the sack they were dragging on the floor.

Patsy mouthed the world.that seemed so familiar and unfamiliar now all at the same time  
...Delia...

 

Patsy knew it wasn't a sack that that creatures dragged behind them so carelessly.  
They threw delia at the bottom of the altar steps.  
She let out a muffled groan because her head hit the marble floor.

Patsy was stunned into paralysis.

'now now, what do we have here'

Jenny went to interject and sister julienne raised a finger in which to silence her.  
Jenny stepped back. Chastised.


	27. wiggate

[](http://s1124.photobucket.com/user/luckythelab/media/fsdsdf.gif.html)


	28. still here

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> horrible.  
> Had to re read my own fic to remember the backstory. Re read it after I wrote it so it's still wooly. 
> 
> Ah. Doesn't if feel like I've been here for fifty years

Sister Julienne regarded the hot mess on the floor that was our very own IMDB (immaculate megababe Delia busby). She tapped the sackcloth with her foot.   
A grunt emanated (probs wrong word) from the bag.   
The head nun gestured for her lower ranking Sister to deal with the situation.   
Patsy recognised her ferocious ice stare and aggressive ginger hair, almost fighting to get out of its habit. The sister ripped the bag with her clawed hand and sniffed the air.   
  
‘Smells *ssssssniff* FRESH’ 

  
Patsy thought julienne looked a little embarrassed. Sister julienne was calm and collected at every moment, and she noticed a tint of annoyance that Sister Winifred was betraying her cool exterior.  
Sister Julienne clapped her hands once and Winifred ran back to the corner where she previously resided. She was grinning.   
Patsy felt sick. She could not believe what was happening. Her voyage of vengeance meant all to her in the days before IMDB, and yet now she felt utterly selfish.   
The way she had closed herself off to the one person that would understand and accept her has now meant she was about to be killed by Patsy’s truest foes.   
She couldn't let it go on.   
Drawing a mini map in the pool of Fred's blood, and marking where all the nuns stood, she hatched a plan.   
  
Delia felt cold hard hands drag her up. She couldn't stand, and her weight was excruciating. The green light was blinding and in her blurred vision she could only make out figures of black and white. Every now and then a warm trickle of blood would drop through her eyebrow. Her head lolled as she tried to raise it.      

The head Nun was now speaking to her.

‘Delia Busby’ the cold clinical sharpness of the older woman’s voice did not echo now, it stuck to her ears and made her shiver visibly. The familiar iron grip of the tallest creature tightened as she moved, and she struggled to try and break loose.

Sister Julienne’s eyes lit up, with a genuine light. The emerald green of the fire-light reflecting off the glass like surface. She lay a hand on Delias shoulder.

‘Child, do not struggle. We have no quarrel with you.’

Delia scowled and held her gaze.

‘Chummy, would you give our guest some space please’

Her grip loosened on Delias arm and Delia flexed, just to make sure nothing was broken.

Everyone secretly watched.

Winifred laughed like a hyena.

‘Something you care to share, Sister?’ Jenny muttered from under her breath. Not understanding why the Superior Nuns respected Winifred more than her.

‘I can smell her’ Winifred said in a low voice. She sidled past a few of the on looking order and raised her head sniffing the air ‘I think we have another visitor’ she smiled widely and laughed with joy.

‘Sister Julienne, can we restart the ritual now? I think someone will want to see the main event!’

‘Very well’ Julienne closed her eyes and nodded her head. Turning her back to Delia.

She regarded her audience.

‘Sisters, Sisters, Sisters. After a lifetimes work. What I am about to show you tonight will go down in history?’

‘Let us begin’

She gestured for the nuns to start chanting, and the light changed to a black-green. It sucked all of the other light from the room.

Delia knew this would be her only moment.

The creature they called chummy was also distracted. Delia turned, as quietly as she could now, towards the light. She spotted Tony’s weak body heaving on the floor and crept over.

‘Tony?...’

‘d……….’ was all he could manage to say.

She whispered as quietly as she could, but the noise of the chants, and the cover of the light was giving them extra cover.

‘Can you move?’

He winced and nodded minimally.

Delia grabbed his arm and slung his body over her shoulders. She hauled him to the side of the Chapel. It was pitch black here, and Delia was disorientated.

A weak voice whispered ‘Over there’

Delia made out a faint outline of a door, and headed to it.

Just then, sister Julienne roared ‘Someone today has front row seats for tonight’s spectacle!’

‘We are going to try out our new vaccine on our two, incredibly kind new visitors’

The sickening laugh of Winifred echoed, and the chanting increased. Delia felt as though she was running on a treadmill to try and make It to the door.

‘Where do you think you’re going?’ a quiet, smug tone asked from the dark. Delia’s lungs felt as if they were about to collapse in on herself and she dropped tony.

‘Tony, GO!’

He looked to disagree, but Delia had pushed him through the door before he had a chance to argue, and it magically locked.

‘FUCK!’ Tony banged on the door in frustration and then started to run.

Before Delia had time to deal with Jenny, she felt a large object hit her on the back. She spluttered and fell forward. Jenny was standing over her with a bible. Jenny regarded it ‘people were always telling me this would come in handy someday… I never did believe them…until now’, she said, almost lazily.

Delia waited for the perfect moment, as jenny still thought she had the better of her and executed a well-timed leg sweep that made her fall heavily onto one side of her hip. She groaned angrily and grasped for her bible which was to her right and Delia kicked it out of her reach.

‘No more bible studies for you’

Jenny went to let out a yell that would alert Sister Julienne of the escaped prisoners.

(Sister Julienne was in the middle of collecting blood from her disciples and letting it into a chalice.

Delia remembered the emergency knife she packed from patsy’s house. She held it to Jenny’s throat.

‘I wouldn’t do that if I were you’

Pure fury radiated from jenny’s red face.

Delia could not help but show some compassion for the situation she was now in.

‘Jenny, why? I thought we were friends…’

Jenny smiled indignantly. She laughed a little and croaked ‘Oh yes, Delia, such friends’.. She gestured at the knife Delia was still holding.

Delia let the pressure up a little, but not fully.

‘I just don’t understand, you were always inviting me out’ Delia whispered, hurt slightly.

Jenny knitted her brows together, confused. ‘And did you once, ONCE ever accept?...I.. loved you...’

Delia's mind was blown. She recounted all of the times Jenny invited her somewhere with such hopeful eyes, and the look of disappointment when delia politely declined because of other commitments.

Delia stuttered, 'I...I had no idea.....,

Jenny scoffed 'of course you didn't. Always hanging around with your ...deviant friend Tony. And then I overheard you were in hospital... I did come to visit you know, , with the Daffodils with the orange middle I know are your favourite'.

jenny smiled wistfully, as if, even now , enjoying the idea of making delia smile with surprise flowers

'i even came outside of visiting hours, in my lunch break. And thats when I saw you and her. And I pieced it all together. Sister Julienne had been right all along about Nurse Mount. 

delia could not believe what she was hearing 

Jenny managed to roll out of the grip as Delia lost focus and concentration, she whistled for Chummy, and Delia saw the giant feet striding to her. Delia stood, regaining balance more quickly, and jenny tried to grab her from behind. It all happened so quickly,

Delia whipped around with her knife hand leading and she stabbed Jenny.

Her face almost as shocked and pale now as the other trainee Nurse.

She heard the bloodcurdling scream of Chummy who caught Delia in a bear hug and was squeezing the air from her lungs. She dropped the knife.

 

 

Patsy knew she had left it too long when they referred to her to watch their sickening show. She silently dropped down to their level and crept along the back row of pews. With calculated precision and skill, she managed to kill one of the larger nuns without anyone noticing. She closed her eyes and visualised her map once more. She hoped Delia and Tony were still ok, but the visibility was so bad, that she had to rely on hope alone.

As she moved to her next target. A creature standing guard at the main door. The Shriek echoed above the chants. It was deadly silent again.

Patsy froze.

The commanding tone of Sister Julienne echoed

‘Nurse Lee, what was that disturbance to our prayer?’

No reply.

‘NURSE LEE?’

Julienne was indignant at having to wait for a reply, and turned to check her captors were still there. As her back was turned Patsy walked up the aisle, now in full view of the Order of Nonnatus house.

Sister Winifred hissed and clapped her hands, delighted. ‘I knew it!’ she repeated.

‘Where is Delia?’ Patsy declared. Not expecting the shake in her voice.

Julienne shut her eyes and looked to the sky.

‘Thank you lord, my prayers have been answered’

‘Welcome home Patsy’ and stepped down the altar now, and patsy reaffirmed her grip on her sword.

 


	29. marchin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hi. Call the midwife starts today . I promised myself I’d finish this by now. I honestly do wonder if anyone is still reading this. I’d be amazed to be honest. Because I cant even remember what is happening and have to read it again to write. Or you ready? You might need a glass of water with this just for hydration purposes. even though this fic isnt completely serious i want to say that i dont think im good at developing character emotions

Patsy walked through the corridor of nuns. She was here to fight julienne only.  
She strode past Sister Winifred warily, the sister hissed loudly. Sister Julienne snapped her fingers, and glared at Winifred, who backed away further into the darkness.  
Patsy inhaled steadily and spied Delia being held in a death grip by Chummy.  
She stared at her feet and began to speak, now addressing everybody in the room.  
‘My quarrel is with Sister Julienne. Sister, would you kindly tell your..creature to let Delia go and I will spare your sisters.’  
The request was met with silence.  
Julienne smiled  
‘Patience, you have grown since I last saw you. You used to be such a sickly, thin, insecure thing….’  
Patsy tried to let it drift over her but the Nun’s words stuck to the back of her ears and she felt repulsed.  
‘This ends now. I am putting a STOP to your EXPERIMENTS and KILLING OF INNOCENTS. ANY LAST WORDS?’  
Patsy prepared her sword in a fighting position, and Julienne considered the statement.  
‘Rest. In. Peace.’  
Julienne started muttering words and her hands started to glow with mystical energy. She directed the first shot straight at her enemy’s head. Patsy quickly dodged it and darted to the left, knowing that this was most likely a practice shot.She regained her balance and ran low to strike Julienne when she was recharging her magic.Patsy slashed diagonally upwards, and julienne blocked her with something that felt like a magnetic beam. They rebounded with the magic force and circled one another. The nuns looking on.

Delia could hardly breathe and thought she would die of strangulation. She regarded Jenny’s now lifeless body on the floor and thought. She remembered the skills she had learned from some of her St. John’s ambulance shifts, often witnessing violence and overseeing protests. She stamped on Chummy’s foot with all of her strength. The creature shifted immediately and Delia ducked down onto the floor, crawling to the knife. Chummy was frantically trying to see where Delia had gone in the low light, which gave Delia the precious seconds she needed.  
Dragging the knife from Jenny and whispering a heartfelt ‘Thank you’ to Jenny. 

  
Delia stood in the shadow and spotted Chummy on her hands and knees searching for Delia. She had lost her glasses in the fray and could not see well, so was relying heavily on her other senses to find Delia. She figured the creature had not alerted julienne to this, as she would have been possibly killed for losing such an important hostage. Chummy inched further and further away from the crowd, and Delia knew it was now or never.

  
She jumped on the creature and it reared back, clawing it Delia from the ground. Delia managed to lodge the knife into its throat and staggered back as the creature writhed and slowly hit the floor. Delia peeked from the top of a pew and noticed Patsy and Julienne were still fighting viciously. Both of them looked tired. Patsy had a few near misses with the magic green balls of flame that Julienne was hurling towards her. Suddenly one blasted towards Delia, and she ducked. It destroyed the benches behind her. The other nuns were standing still in meditation. Delia had heard of the power of prayer and wondered if the joint power of the nuns would make Julienne stronger. She had no more time to ponder this as she felt a stabbing pain on her upper arm. She didn’t want to look down.  
Feeling sick, she regarded her arm. There it was. The distinctive 4 red lines, freshly embedded. She figured Chummy had inflicted the scar when trying to fight her off. She remembered what patsy had said about the danger of a scratch from one of the infected creatures.

Delia was sent reeling and knew one thing. Before the infection took full hold, she should help Patsy make it out alive. She decided to keep this information from Patsy and covered her arm over with some of the fabric from her shirt.

A huge cry sounded from the altar’s direction and the noise fell. Delia saw the older woman collapse on the altar steps. The altar cracked in two and Patsy dropped her sword in exhaustion. The remaining Nuns were still meditating and had not noticed what had just happened. Delia staggered towards patsy.  
‘Delia!!!!!!!’  
‘Pats----!!!!’  
They said in unison and hugged each other. Delia audibly winced, but luckily Patsy didn’t notice as she had the beginnings of a bruised rib cage herself and didn’t hug her very nightly.  
Patsy winced. Delia laughed slightly through relief and tears began to form in her eyes as she noticed her arm losing feeling. It would not be long.  
Patsy stared deeply and steadily into her eyes ‘Are you OK? Are you hurt…..? I am so sorry I have dragged you into all of ---‘  
Delia nodded and gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. She opened her mouth to speak, when they realised. The Nuns had changed their position of meditation, and had started to advance towards the pair, surrounding them in a circle. They span around to try and distract Patsy and Delia. Every now and again Delia saw the unmistakable ginger tresses of Sister Winifred whizz by, getting closer.  
Pats reached in her hair and took out the pins which held it. Delia thought this was not the time for hairdressing, and also noticed miraculously her hair did not move with the removal of the pins, as she used far too much wax. Patsy handed one of them to Delia, and copied patsy’s action. The hair grips cleverly turned into small knives. As impressive as this forward thinking was, the knives were only 2 inches long and Delia felt severely unequipped. Patsy picked up on her insecurity.  
‘I’m so sorry Deels. And if-’  
The glasses wearing nun lunged out behind Patsy; her eyes glowing red, magnified and refracted slightly by her glasses. Luckily Delia was facing her and shouted for patsy to duck.

  
Delia landed a well timed right hook, smashing the glasses into the nuns face. She silently dropped to the floor and crawled away. Patsy was shook but gave Delia the greatest look of approval Delia had had ever seen from her. The redheaded woman now snapped out of it and continued with her sentence.  
And if its my last chance to say it…..’  
The huge orb of black magic had reappeared over their heads from the altar. Summoned by the remaining nuns. They knew this was it, they had seconds left.  
Delia felt like she was dying. She was in the literal sense (in more than one way). And also in the mental sense because of what suspense patsy had left her in.  
‘I……….’  
The light from the orb intensified and blinded everybody in the room. Patsy and Delia held on to each other and shut their eyes for fear of the unknown. And the nuns ran back to their corners like cockroaches. Delia blinked one eye open and saw the light had vanished and it was indeed another light that was blinding. The light of day. Triggered by the main door to the chapel that was now wide open.  
‘Patsy’ Delia whispered and encouraged her to see what she thought her eyes were deceiving her.  
Patsy could not believe it.  
Standing at the door was nurse crane with a flaming torch and a rifle in her hand. Behind her were some 250 poplar residents, all with makeshift weapons, and pitchforks.  
She stormed in.  
‘INFANTRY. ADVANCE.’  
Nurse crane ordered her first line of infantry to storm the chapel and they charged out in all directions to purge Poplar from the evil nuns.  
Nurse Crane squinted to focus into the darker end of the room.  
‘Is that you girls?’ she said in her shaky Leeds accent.  
They couldn't manage a reply.  
‘you two get out of here, I’m sure I’ll be able to take it from here’  
‘FLAMETHROWERS, DOWSE THE FOUNDATIONS’  
Deels and pats hobbled over to the Nurse and gave her a grateful smile.  
‘Are you sure?’ Delia managed to say.  
Nurse Crane smiled honestly  
‘Positive. Now GO!’

  
Breathless, they ran for the exit of Nonnatus house and saw the smoke beginning to rise from the stained glass of the windows furthest away.  
They made it to a deserted alleyway, about a mile away from Nonnatus. Delia begged patsy to stop as she was having problems with her leg.  
Patsy’s emotions were all over the place, as she had just slain her mightiest enemy and potentially stopped thousands of people from a terrible life they did not choose, and yet she had risked the life of Delia, the person she cared about most in the last few weeks, all because of a selfish reason.  
‘Delia, is it broken?? Please let me-‘  
Delia was growing ever more worried as she had no feeling in half of her body now and was finding it impossible to keep up.  
‘I’m fine! Get off me’ Delia swatted Patsy away from her and Patsy grabbed her arm.  
‘Delia I am a nurse… If Chummy, or anyone in there for that matter, injured you , I’ll be able to see what’s wrong’  
‘Don’t you think I KNOW what’s wrong with me too?!?! I am a nurse too Patsy, I'm fine. Now lets go, I’m getting cold here’  
Patsy saw the logical side in Delia's argument and decided not to push her. She stood up slowly, and held out an arm to help Delia.  
That was when she noticed the scratches. Four marks, now turning more black as the infection spread.

Patsy was silent for a long while. Their steps wearing increasingly slow. The only sound was their feet on the cobbled pavement. 

  
Her eyes filled with tears. She measured a silent breath.  
‘Delia’.  
‘When were you planning on telling me about’ she inhaled audibly ‘the scratch….’

Delia stopped and raised head to meet patsy’s eyes.

  
‘Patsy………I am so sorry’. Patsy let out an anguished sob and started to cry.

  
Delia's eyes rolled back into her head and her body became limp. Pure horror echoed in Patsy, she had seen it countless times. She lowered Delia as gently as she could and stood helplessly as she lay on the cobbled street. The lamplight made their skin look translucent. Delia’s whole body tensed and the seizures took hold.

Patsy knew it wouldn’t be long. She could not bear to watch. Sister Julienne had won. Patsy felt so stupid that the Nun would have died before taking everything that she loved from her....

Patsy wiped the tears from her eyes and turned her back on Delia.

She got lost in the night on the cold London streets.

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

the end


	30. epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> boring i know i just want to finish it. had this story in my head since the start so nothing was altered due to recent events. thanks for reading . it was nice to exercise my brain in such a way i do not do very often.  
> Onward

 

Her body was heavy, yet moved the most violently it ever had. She knew this was the end and felt her presence evaporate.  
The magic took over her body. Causing the seizures to happen more violently.

  
The last the last thing she remembered was arms enveloping her and the weight from the floor being lifted.  
'ey up lass' a voice, echoed and distant. Near and far. Delia accepted death from a welcoming Northern angel .

 Once again she woke to a bright hospital. She would never get used to this. Checking her own vitals, Delia surmised she had feeling back in all of her limbs. She Wiggles her fingers and toes. Feeling like Lazarus.  Glancing to her arm, she saw the fresh bandage that covered her scar. She lightly brushed her hand over it and wished she hadn't. Memories flooded back of the night at Nonnatus.  The only gaps in her memory forming when they made it out into the Cold Night Air.

  
How many days had passed?  
Who brought her here?  
What had happened to Patsy?

  
Delia noticed a fresh glass of water sitting on her bedside table so she reached and drank. The water felt so pure.  
There was a commotion outside and then the door opened. In walked the inimitable Nurse Crane. The Northerner smiled knowingly and kindly,  
'How are you feeling, love?  
That was quite an ordeal you went through...' the nurse widened her eyes to emphasise the point.

Delia nodded, not having words for the situation.  
'I've never seen anyone go through that and live to tell the tale!...'  
She patted Delia's knee and refilled the glass of water.  
Delia didn't really know why she was smiling but she felt safer with the nurse.  
Delia snapped out of it and remembered some more.

  
'You saved us Phyllis!?'  
'Without you... Patsy and I... oh no'

  
Delia whispers Patsy's name under her breath, which the older nurse heard.  
'That's the very reason I came to see you, Nurse Busby.'  
'You have a visitor. And I believe she has an apology. Would you be ok if I let Nurse Mount visit you? Don't feel awkward if you want to to say no, I can send her away like that'      Nurse Crane clicked her fingers.  
Delia nodded profusely, a wave of relief hitting her.  
'I would love to see her'  
And then she started to worry.  
'Is she ok?'  
'Now, now. wait and see.'  
The nurse sidled out of the small private room.

  
Delia started to panic and looked around for a mirror in case she wasn't presentable. At the back of her mind she wondered why she worried about this, as it seemed like it should have been the last thing in anybody's mind, but even so she retrieved the small pocket mirror and adjusted her fringe. Even though she's been through a death defying ordeal she still looked five stars.  
She regarded the magazine on the nightstand and started to read it mindlessly. Around five minutes later the commotion and slight more noise came from outside the door. It creaked slowly open and Nurse Crane peeped her head round the door and have Delia a wink  
'I'll leave you two to it. Give me a shout if you need anything' and with that she disappeared into the ward, leaving the ginger to gingerly step into the room.

Delia had never seen a  look so remorseful on anyone's face before. It looked as if Patsy had not slept for many nights, and she was clutching a letter.  
When she set eyes on Delia, she began to cry. Practically running to her, she caught Delia in the familiar embrace.

'Oh Deels I thought I'd lost you...  
I'm so sorry for leaving' Patsy was sobbing and Delia thought it was best to just be patient and wait for her to speak.  
'I've this countless times.... You were.... You were'

Delia rescued a stray tear running down Pats' face.  
'Patsy, what are you talking about? I'm here now, I'm fine'  
Patsy looked at her, her face more brash than before  
'Delia. you don't understand you don't remember. I left you you. you were scratched by the creature and you...Collapsed. '  
Delia looked slightly confused and traced her arm lightly where the bandage was.  
Patsy continued.  
'I've never known anybody survive that apart from...'

  
Delia suddenly remembered Patsy's scars she said were from the camp.

Delia started '...you...?  P-Patsy?'

Patsy slowly rolled back her sleeve from her checked shirt and revealed the black scar that spread in fractal lines, as if it were her veins. 

Delia reached out to trace the scar.

Patsy spoke quietly.

'I need to tell you something.  You remember I told you about the camp and the experiments?'

Delia nodded and continued to trace her arm. 

'Well, they were trying to find and isolate a virus that would only affect...'

Patsy drew a shaky breath, it was taking all of her strength to tell the story. 

 

'...thats why I left you....because I knew, I thought....'

'It would only affect who pats?...' 

Patsy looked bashful and broke delia's steady gaze. 

'Queers'

Delia drew back her hand and mouthed an

'oh...'

 Patsy continued, knowing if she stopped she would not be able to continue.

'The virus was thought up by Hitler, and Sister Julienne. She worked for them to concoct the right mix of chemicals and magic. That was what they were doing that night at Nonnatus. That green light. They were trying to change Tony into one of their undead monsters, but he was too strong. He fought back.'

Delia's eyes shone with pride. 

'The virus was terribly developed in the camps. The 'scientists' working on it didn't have a clue on how to contain it or isolate it, and so it mutated...' Patsy's eyes were glazed at this point. She spoke as if reciting a dictionary. 

'But they...we... grew an immunity to the virus, and the virus started to attack the ...normal people...(Patsy did not like to use this term). I wondered why I was spared for the longest time. It wasn't until I travelled into China after the war, that I trained with the Shaolin Nuns, they figured it out and told me.'

She fell silent. 

 

Delia was mentally processing for a while.

Patsy was silent and didn't know what to say.

'Deels, I'm so sorry you had to find this about yourself in this way...I wouldn't wish it-'

Delia closed the distance between them and kissed patsy lightly, she leaned back and looked at Patsy who was thoroughly shocked. Delia squeezed her arm, desperately trying to get some information from Patsy.

Patsy breathed a wow and Delia laughed. They both laughed.

 

'I've known for a long time Pats. Just like I've known how I wanted to kiss you'

Patsy's eyebrows rose so much they almost hit the roof. She smiled mischievously and said in a low tone

'Deels, if you'd have told me that a few days ago we could have saved on a **lot** of bother...'

It was Patsy who leaned to kiss Delia now.

 

 

* * *

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> end. thanks for reading. 
> 
> p.s. the locket that patsy gave delia a lot of chapters ago was just a locket with patsys picture in it. patsy told delia it would protect her, if you remember. If you dont , no problem. anyway, pats thought the gay memento would protect delia somehow. i was going to work that into the story but i never got round to it.


End file.
